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WILLIAM ALLEN 



Matter, Man, and Spirit, 



THEIR RELATION TO SCIENCE 
AND PHILOSOPHY. 



BY WILLIAM ALLEN, 



"prove all things; hold fast that which is good.'/ 

(i Thess, V. ax.) 



Nashville, Tenn., Dallas, Tex.: 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 

Smith & Lamar, Agents, 

1903. 



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A 



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THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGF^ESS; 

Two Copies RsOEivlSD 

•^ COPY B. 




Entered, according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1903, 

By William Allen, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 



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• « • « « 



PREFACE. 

The introductory chapter may be read or omitted. 
The author would advise the reading of the other chap- 
ters first. When they are read, if the reader is not sat- 
isfied with, certain grounds assumed, then he may read 
the introduction with probable profit. 

The author regards this little volume, taken as a 
v/hole, as more suggestive than demonstrative. It is 
a pioneer service in the scope and territory of its 
thought. Where there is no satisfactory demonstra- 
tion, it is hoped that the suggestions are sufficient to 
lead others to meditation and advancement in what 
has been undertaken. In the survey made the author 
is well convinced that the world generally, not only in 
religion but otherwise, is running by the belief of 
things rather than by knowledge. Hence, he has 
tried to refrain from all dogmatic expressions. 

Books are numerous, but no more so than the peo- 
ple. It is believed that only a few books of merit have 
failed to get the recognition they deserved. This Ijt- 
tle volume is cheerfully submitted to the reading pub- 
lic with a hope that It may do some good. 

The Author. 

Frisco, Tex., July 7, 1903. 

(iii) 



INTRODUCTION. 

Since having written the chapters of this book, lest 
the reader should conclude that unwarranted grounds 
have been assumed without effort to make the proper 
proofs, it is thought best by way of an introductory 
chapter to prelude those that follow with a more par- 
ticular notice of those grounds assumed and which 
otherwise might appear the more doubtful. The more 
so does this appear necessary since some of the as- 
sumptions are at variance with certain scientific ideas 
of the present day; nor are they altogether in har- 
mony with cherished philosophy. There can be no 
employment of the mind more delightful than its 
search for the true relation of the spirit and material 
form of man and the relation that this compound and 
mysterious being sustains to the things of the uni- 
verse, both physical and metaphysical. 

As a general thought of these chapters, it is assumed 
that, in strict sense, man sees nothing but light, that 
all materiality is an obstruction to vision, and that 
man sees matter only as something in the way, an ob- 
struction which vision cannot pass. This of course, 
in a degree, reverses the common idea of science 
which assumes that light is given as a means for the 
purpose of seeing rather than the only thing that is 
absolutely seen. Science claims, in order to the vi- 
sion of anything, that an image must be formed on the 
optic nerve, or its expansion, called the retina; that 
this produces molecular action in the sensor nerves, 
which have a connection with the brain; and that the 

(0 



2 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

brain has a direct and well-understood connection with 
the life and its qualities called mind and conscious- 
ness. In this view light seems to be regarded as a 
means or condition of nature by which man positively 
sees and becomes conscious of matter through his 
sense of vision. Yet an image formed on the retina is 
itself a sign that something has got in the way of 
vision. Since the spirit of man has connection with 
the physical world through a material body, this phe- 
nomenon is unavoidable and becomes a meditation of 
the mind. 

But notwithstanding it is herein assumed that the 
spirit life in man, even while it is confined to vi- 
sion through a material organ, can look into negative 
nature and see that condition called light. And yet, 
so far as natural light is concerned, the life does not 
perceive it perfectly because it sees the light through 
a material organism, and for the further reason that 
there is probably no such thing in nature as pure or 
distilled light, because everywhere there is more or 
less substance connected with it. Again, there are, 
doubtless, things substantially something that remain 
invisible as a fact, or as unacknowledged obstructions 
to vision because of qualities or conditions unknown. 

It is hard to find a reason, if the soul of man is an 
entity at all, under proper conditions of light, why 
such entitles, either in their reflections or shadows, 
might not be seen. If the soul through a^material 
organism sees in the light and sees the light, why not 
in pure or distilled light see such a thing as itself, or a 
shadow or reflection of itself? If light is a mere con- . 
dition of nature and unsubstantial, such a thought is 
not altogether out of reason, although such a thing may 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

have never consciously appeared. About the only rea- 
son standing against this view of the case is the fact 
that the soul would be looking upon and into pure light 
through a material organ which would itself be an 
obstruction to its vision. Air is regarded as invisible, 
but it is not positively so ; for, like all materiality, it is, 
in a degree, an obstruction to vision. It is therefore 
seen obstructively, as all physical things are seen. 
Hence there is always something hedging a man from 
a vision of things in metaphysical territory. Should 
man by some chance discovery or invention find a way 
to purify the natural light, he would yet have the 
greater task before him of purifying the natural or- 
gan of vision before the soul could look upon such 
things as itself or on its reflections or shadows. Any- 
way, if light is to be considered as merely a condi- 
tion of nature, substances are to be seen obstructive- 
ly in the degree of purity of the light and the or- 
gan of vision. In the highest degree of purity in 
these every substance of nature should be obstruct- 
ively visible. 

But it requires a great effort to believe that light is 
no substance at all, that it is a mere condition of nature 
even as darkness is but another condition, yet neverthe- 
less that such is true is not without evidence. Light 
may be a mere eft'ect, reflection, or condition of nonen- 
tity produced by the action of forces; and, so far as 
reason is concerned, it had as well be light as darkness 
or anything else of an unsubstantial nature. Now let it 
be hypothecated that light is not a substance. Then all 
substances must appear In it obstructively as some solid 
material or in the degree of shadows according to their 
attenuation. Yet only the coarser forms are visible. 



4 ' MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Substances are known to exist whose forms or shadows 
have never been perceived by the vision of man. This 
is no proof, however, that their shadows are not in the 
light, but rather a proof that the soul is unable to see 
all substances through a material body. 

It is commonly said that man sees a tree, a moun- 
tain, smoke, or vapor ; but he does not really see them. 
They simply mark the end of vision in their direction, 
and assume a hue that light gives them in its distri- 
bution. Light is a condition of nature to be seen il- 
limitably, and would be seen inimitably if there were 
no obstructions to vision. Even through a material 
organ the soul sees to the fixed stars. There is no 
reason why light might not be seen to the extent of 
its existence if within its sphere and in the material 
organ of vision there dwelt no obstruction. The liv- 
ing principle, then, that sees would not see things 
under an angle of vision like any and all materiality or 
obstructions are seen, but in the broadness of uni- 
versal light. This would supersede the services of 
the sensor and motor nerves. In this condition unseen 
entities might be perceived; yet they would be seen 
under the angles of their magnitudes and only in the 
degree in which their attenuation would produce ob- 
structiveness. Man's weakness is his greatest fault. It 
belongs to his reason as absolutely as to his sense of 
natural vision. He sees, he reasons, be thinks ''through 
a glass darkly," all as in a riddle ; always coveting the 
hidden mysteries, and always unsatisfied with his 
knowledge. Shall he thus remain? Shall he ever 
know as he is known? 

But let there be a pause while an illustration is given 
showing the way in which the spirit of man sees the 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

light. Place him in the dark caverns of the Mammoth 
Cave. What a condition of nature! How helpless 
the soul through its material organ of vision! The 
very darkness is as truly a wall around his vision as 
the limestone cliffs. He sees nothing but the obstruct- 
ing darkness, and it is nothing. Now remove him to a 
place where the gateway of entrance gets in view. 
Hemmed in by these cavernous walls, he is yet three 
hundred yards from that small gateway. All around 
him, in every direction except that small gateway, 
there is perceptible change in the darkness. Yet he 
distinctly sees the point of light at the entrance. He 
sees it not as a piercing beam from the sun but in 
the softness and unobtrusiveness of light itself. He 
sees it as light that stands between the hills, as trickles 
down through the forest trees. He sees it as a spot at 
the entrance of the dark chamber, and it seems to be 
as stationary as the rocks around it. Had he never 
seen light before, it would appear to him as a soft sub- 
stance delightful to the touch. This small spot of 
light does not affect the vision far back in the cave 
except in its ow^n direction. If a man were walking 
back with his eyes turned away from it, the light on 
the cliffs could give him no consciousness that light 
was in sight. Yet with his eyes turned toward it he 
sees it with the softness and clearness of open day. 
It does not affect the cliffs around him, yet if there 
were a human eye on every square inch around him 
each eye would see the fullness of the light at the 
gateway. 

Why is this, and why do one and all see the light 
so clearly when it is so dark around them? From 
their position they could read a signboard at the en- 



O MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

trance; but if brought in, it would be as dark as the 
dififs around. They see the light at the entrance as 
plainly as those already there. They see the light in 
its full quantum. They see the people and every ob- 
struction in the light from their position to the gate- 
way. A man may see his companion before him, but 
he cannot see the one behind. They see the light 
through a territory of darkness. They see it not as 
something like a substance coming in to meet them 
but as an apparent fixture like the rocks at the gate- 
way. They see it altogether not because a ray or a 
thousands rays fall upon their eyes but because it is 
light and the soul of man is able to see it through the 
natural organ of vision and because the soul can see 
nothing absolutely but light, and that every substan- 
tiality, whether physical .or metaphysical, can be seen 
only as an obstruction. Light, therefore, should be 
regarded as an effect, or merely as a condition of na- 
ture, and not in any sense as a substance. Its radiation 
or a beam of light cannot be a substance; or, if so, it 
becomes confounded with the emission theory. In 
such a view the wave and corpuscular theories get 
inextricably mixed and confused. But if light be re- 
garded as unsubstantial, the motion of cosmic ether 
may account for its reflection with the speed that mo- 
tion is conveyed, and no more. Water waves and sound 
waves are not substance carried forward. The sub- 
stances only rise and fall with scarcely perceptible 
precession, and yet the waves advance rapidly. Nor is 
it therefore to be regarded that ether waves carry 
substance of light. If light is held as a substance, it 
would be more appropriate to assume that the inter- 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

Stellar ether emits the substance; but this Is again 
merging into the emission theory. 

With the foregoing view the spirit of man casts its 
vision out into negative nature and sees light which 
is not a substance, looks into and perceives a condi- 
tion of unsubstantiality and finds a difference in its 
appearance from that other opposite condition of nega- 
tive nature called darkness. But it may be asked : How 
is this possible? How can the soul see and be im- 
pressed with that which is substantially nothing? To 
answer in part, may it not be asked whether vision 
itself is a substance? Of course all agree that it is 
not, but simply a quality of the life. Then does it not 
appear that an unsubstantial quality connects the sub- 
stantial with unsubstantial or negative nature, and 
that all substance is seen in such a condition as an ob- 
struction? The soul or spirit is a substance, but the 
mind and the soul sense are qualities belonging to the 
life, and without which they must be nil. The life 
sees through or by an unsubstantial quality of its na- 
ture. Hence the soul's vision is connected through an 
unsubstantial quality of its nature with the reality of 
unsubstantial or negative nature, and realizes and sees 
light, which can be nothing more than a reflection or 
unsubstantial effect. 

In this connection time may be fitly taken to show 
how, in a general way, negative or unsubstantial na- 
ture may affect the human soul. When the loving wife 
looks into the face of her dead husband it is not 
that substantial dead form that provokes her tears, 
sorrow, and lamentation, but the negative side of the 
question, the absence of his life. She realizes, sees, 
and feels this negative side of nature. She is in some 



8 



MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



way in sight of it and in touch with it. It is a positive, 
an absolute absence in touch with her Hfe. Again, 
when an unarmed hunter meets a grizzly bear he is 
conscious of two things, the ferocity of the beast and 
his own fear; the one a substantially recognized and 
dangerous enemy, the other a merely negative quality 
of the spirit within him. But this fear is in immedi- 
ate contact with his life even while the bear is at a dis- 
tance. His touch with fear and his vision of it give 
him the same consciousness of its existence as the 
sight of the bear gives him consciousness of his dan- 
gerous enemy. The bear would be no more than an 
innocent lamb in the way were it not for a quality of 
the life between the two substantialities, the life and 
the bear. These things have been mentioned as illus- 
trative of that which the soul perceives — light and 
darkness. The living husband is light, and the dead 
husband is darkness. 

Ex nihilo nihil fit, is a maxim of materialism. It is 
the sentiment that matter is eternal. In view of the 
attenuation of substances, nothing and a beginning to 
be are equally lost in the conception. In this strange 
evolution the one reflects itself on the life as much as 
the other. An infantile beginning too attenuated to 
form a shadow and yet not possessed of force is so much 
like nothing that the human mind is incapable of 
making a distinction. Yet that beginning grew from 
a seed, and that seed was nothing in the hands of the = 
Eternal Power. Life lies out substantially so near 
and has such kinship with such beginning that it has 
been given a sense perception not only of existences 
but of that condition of nothingness out of which sub- 
stantial nature has been made. Hence, in looking 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

Upon it, the mind at one time is found measuring 
space and weighing gravity; at another, contempla- 
ting the conditions of Hght and darkness. The life is 
so constituted that it is easily able to look into that 
condition of nature called light, and it need no more be 
believed that it is a substance than that the shadow of 
the earth on the moon is a substance. Neither light 
nor darkness is a substance. They are both posited 
on the conditions of other things, and appear or disap- 
pear according to those conditions. One cannot be 
said to have a velocity greater than the other. They 
are each a reflection from nature ; one when cosmic 
ether is in motion, the other when it is at rest. Make 
a new fixed star at the distance of Sirius, and years 
would pass before its Hght would reach the earth. 
Suddenly blot it out, and it could still be seen by the 
eyes of man for the same period of years, but with 
gradually dying brightness. From the star that lost 
its luminosity darkness would chase with the speed of 
light's recession toward the eyes of man. 

There is such a habit and constraint in man to make 
everything matter of some kind that he seems to lose 
his patience at the mere mention of the perception or 
visibility of that v/hich is nothing at all. He readily 
admits that darkness is nothing. Yet he sees darkness 
in the sense that he sees any physical obstruction to 
vision. In the midst of this darkness he is still in 
connection with physical nature through his other 
senses. He hears the music of birds, of trembling 
pipes, and those coarser noises of falling timber and 
resounding thunder. He feels and distinguishes the 
things around him as round or square, smooth or 
rough, hard or soft. He distinguishes between the 



lO IMATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

sweet fragrance of the flowers and odors that are of- 
fensive. He tastes the viands of the table and distin- 
guishes the best. In this cosmos of four senses the 
life or spirit is in contact partly with positive matter 
and partly with nothing at all. Sound is the thing 
heard, and yet it is substantially nothing. So light is 
the thing seen, and it also is nothing. Sound cannot be 
called a substance, although the air is necessary to its 
existence. It is posited on the conditions of other 
things. The quick, sudden motions of the air, and its 
equally quick and sharp clapping together to fill the 
produced voids, may affect other physical bodies, may 
shake a house and even break the window glass ; yet 
it is not sound that breaks the glass, but aerial dis- 
turbance. Even mutes may feel the sensation, but do 
not hear the sound ; for sound is not a substantial en- 
tity acting on the physical man, but an unsubstantial 
sensation or impression on his life. Although the ma- 
terial air and ear are necessary, they do not produce 
the sensation and consciousness of sound. Because 
the ear is set in the body and is necessary that there 
might be a conscious sensation of sound in the life, 
it is not a proof that sound is substance. Therefore 
the substantial life is connected by its own unsubstan- 
tial qualities with unsubstantial things, as light and 
sound, and thence v/ith the media that give things 
which are substantially nothing their apparent being. 
Seeing and not seeing, so far as that sense is con- 
cerned, are different and opposite conditions of the 
life. With the eyes open and shut are two conditions 
of life, and one as natural as the other. The act of see- 
ing contains in it nothing more than the non-act. 
Darkness is one condition of nature and light is an- 



INTRODUCTION. II 

Other, yet substantially the two conditions are the same. 
Interstellar ether is an unchanged substance in either 
light or darkness. The sun and every luminous star 
might exist as opaque bodies in their full quantum of 
substance, and there would be no light. But give the 
matter of the sun a molecular action that would develop 
heat and luminosity. To say that it emits the gener- 
ated heat and light as particles would be to reestab- 
lish the abandoned corpuscular theory. To say that the 
particles of heat and light are reflected by cosmic ether, 
or that these particles are conveyed from the sun in the 
cosmic ether or in any other substance, would still de- 
note an entanglement with the emission theory. How, 
then, can light be a substance of any kind ? If it is sub- 
stance, it must get that substance from the ether; but 
even this would give too close a resemblance to the 
corpuscular theory. In truth, the casCv stands about as 
follows : If the light is a substance, the emission theory 
in some relation is true. If it be unsubstantial, the 
wave theory may be true. But the emission theory 
cannot account so well for the phenomena of light, 
and therefore must be rejected. Light is therefore a 
merely unsubstantial condition of nature, and upon 
this well-hypothecated basis belief may be indulged 
that the wave theory may be true. 

It may be further said that light is unintelligently 
seen unless there is consciousness of its vision. With- 
out consciousness man is intelligently dead to all the 
universe contains. He is dead to light, sound, to all 
substantiality and to all unsubstantiality. Nothing but 
the involuntary and unconscious condition of life would 
be the whole of him. Yet man is conscious that he 
thinks; but his thought is not a substance, nor can it 



12 .MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIt. 

be determined that substance is contained in the think- 
ing act. Yet man in some sense handles his thought 
as he does a material body. He sees it, it is before 
him, he takes hold of it, weighs it and measures it, 
considers its value, rejects it or applies it. So with 
space. He beholds it, measures it, in a mysterious 
way takes it into his hands and considers it as he 
would material things. Space is a phenomenon, but 
lacking in phenomena. Thought and space are noth- 
ing. Yet they are perceived; and if perceived, they 
must in some sense be seen, although not through the 
natural sense. Why not thus see light through the 
natural organ made for its perception, though it be 
nothing, though it be as unsubstantial as thought 
and space themselves? Consciousness of space and 
thought is in some sense to see them; consciousness 
of light is to see it. Consciousness of the obstruction 
to vision is to see the obstruction in its own line or 
under its own angle of vision. But why all this? 
It is simply the life or spirit looking directly on those 
things. It is a quality of the life called the mind that 
takes them into consideration. As long as it is allowed 
that man has consciousness, and that he has con- 
sciousness of things both substantial and unsubstantial, 
it must be allowed that the unsubstantial is not alto- 
gether invisible. Or else how could man hold the un- 
substantial in contemplation? He cannot see the un- 
substantial in the intellectualism of pure life or spirit, 
but simply in the intellectualism of man in an organ- 
ism of matter. This implies the embarrassment from 
which man caimot extricate himself. His is an intel- 
lectualism rendered obtuse, like his natural senses, 
through a material body. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

There is a great difference in the use, strength, and 
compass of the senses. Touching, smeUing, and tast- 
ing are particularly connected with matter. They be- 
long to this category. Touch is not a local sense, as 
the eye or ear. It is the sense that covers the whole 
surface of man, and is in the eye and ear as delicately 
as in any other part. It is in the man as well as on his 
surface. It is in the whole nervous system, whose lines, 
both visible and invisible, ramify through the whole 
physical form. The senses of smell and taste are 
local, and appear to incidentally exist. The mouth is 
formed for speech and to receive aliment, and the nose 
for respiration ; yet in the mouth and nose these senses 
are particularly located. Smelling and tasting are pe- 
culiar and delicate ways of touching matter and of dis- 
covering some of its qualities, and even this is as 
much a discovery of qualities in man as in matter. 
Yet in the particular places of taste and smell the gen- 
eral touch exists as in other parts of the body. In 
their relation to matter these three senses may be re- 
garded as senses of touch. The general touch is in- 
capable of discovering certain qualities of matter and 
of man himself, and therefore it is supplemented with 
local and delicate senses of touch — ^the smelling and 
tasting. These two senses discover qualities of matter 
in its infinitesimal magnitudes, or in particles too small 
for the general touch. These three senses, or this one 
compound sense, hold a different relation to the life 
from the seeing and hearing. They connect the life in 
no wise except with matter. They are very closely 
connected with the mere animal life, and are necessary 
for both its comfort and safety. There are no ob- 
structions in their way ; for while matter is an obstruc- 



14 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

tion to vision in the light, and may be also to sound, 
these three senses have no relation except with the 
obstructions themselves. Light is not at all necessary 
to their exercise. 

From the foregone statements it may be perceived 
that the life is both directly and indirectly connected 
with matter: by the lower and coarser sense of touch 
directly (that is, by the touching, tasting, and smell- 
ing) ; by the higher senses indirectly (that is, by the 
seeing and hearing). Matter is not seen and heard, 
but is touched. It cannot be seen through the natural 
sense contactually, but at proper distances as an ob- 
struction. In the lower senses it is matter touching 
matter, the m.aterial body touching extraneous sub- 
stance. 

There is accuracy of judgment concerning touch. 
A man cannot touch without being touched. He not 
only has consciousness that he is touched, but also of 
the very spot that touches or is touched. Touch not 
only shows a quality of substance touched, but also a 
quality of the impressed Hfe that is sensible to the 
touch. Touching may be outside of the body or in- 
side, a contact with extraneous substance or a contact 
with some portion of the body itself; it may be some 
object without, or some pressing inflammation giving 
pain within. But whatever or wherever it is, the place 
is located with clear judgment. There is likewise ac- 
curacy in sound. It comes to man frpm all courses 
contained in a sphere with himself as a center. Yet he 
easily discerns the course of its origination and can 
fairly judge of the distances. 

It is hard to conceive how there could be sound 
without rarefactions and vacuums in the air. It cer- 



INTRODUCTION. 1 5 

tainly must originate by the smacking of the air to- 
gether, or its smacking against a material substance. 
The rolling thunder indicates the former, and the rush- 
ing in of the air when a gun is discharged indicates 
the latter. The air pressing in with a weight of fifteen 
pounds to each square inch, because of its wonderful 
elasticity, will certainly smack itself against the ma- 
terial substance with great force. The greater the 
vacuum, the more deafening will be the sound, because 
of increased disturbance. But in rarefied or thin air 
motion is less hasty and the disturbance is propor- 
tionally of less degree. 

But what is sound? The world has been full of 
explanation from ancient times. A tyro at school can 
understand what is meant by water waves, aerial 
waves, and ethereal waves. He can easily be acquaint- 
ed with rarefactions, condensations, vacuums, wave 
crests, and wave fronts. But still these do not satisfy, 
although they are admittedly knowledge in the right 
direction. He would still know what is that noiseless 
thing coming toward him through aerial motion at the 
rate of 1,142 feet per second. He sees a fellow stand- 
ing in the distance toward the coming sound, and 
when it reaches him he sees him jump as though he 
were frightened. Yet he himself sees nothing and 
hears nothing coming toward him. But presently he 
himself jumps as in fright like the other fellow. The 
deaf man standing by his side smiles at the action of 
his comrade, neither hearing nor conscious that any- 
thing had come and gone except the amusing action 
of his comrade. This is what is called sound and the 
passing of a sound wave. 

But still the question is asked: What is sound? It 



1 6 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

is certainly not matter nor substance of any kind. It 
seems most strikingly to be nothing more than an un- 
substantial quality appearing in nature on the action 
or condition of certain substances. As a quality it is 
objective, but requires a suitable living organism to 
discern it and an intellectualism to consider its phe- 
nomena. The matter or substance through which it 
passes has only an upward and downward or back- 
ward and forward movement, with but little advance 
gain. One wave quickly follows another, and the 
waves and sound are strictly in company. Yet it is 
hard to conceive that through all the distance sound 
travels there is maintained the instantaneous and sud- 
den motion that was at the place of its origin. Yet it 
must be true, for the velocity of sound is uniform in 
the same medium. It is true that sound by distance 
shows weakness in its strength but never in tone. In 
order to preserve the tone of sound with decreasing 
strength, it must be allowed that the vacuums formed 
must preserve equal area but a regularly decreasing 
depth. By and by the depth is so small that there is no 
hearing of the sound because there is no sensible clap- 
ping together of the air. 

But is the sound made at the place of its origin the 
sound that may be heard at any other place? Or are 
there not as many sounds made as there are wave 
crests or formed vacuums ? And Is not sound, like its 
producing wave, lost in its own neighborhood ? Really 
it seems that as soon as sound Is made It Is lost, but 
that at the Instant It is lost there Is made another wave 
which generates another sound like unto the first, and 
so on successively as far as the waves extend. So 
then, though a sound wave may be produced in the 



INTRODUCTION. l^ 

distance, the sound that is really heard is produced by 
a present wave. Each wave produces and loses its 
own sound. In other words, there are as many sounds 
as there are condensations. A man therefore does not 
hear a sound in the strength of its origin but in the 
strength of the present wave that produces it. 

But the question may well be asked why, when 
sound is heard, there is also an impression of the 
place of its origin, however near or however far away ? 
It is very probable that this is done, at least in a de- 
gree, by a perception of the different strengths of 
sound waves. But perhaps, to be a little more philo- 
sophical, it may be said that there is a kindred nature 
between sound and light — not simply in the respect 
of their unsubstantiality, but in their effect on man. 
When there is present light, it may be, if not local and 
artificial, different from the light at its source. The 
light on the earth is not the light of the sun. Yet a 
man can see to the source of its origin. So with 
sound. A sound present may not be the sound at the 
origin of the sound wave. But man is so constituted 
that out of a present sound he hears to the place of its 
origin and knows the direction whence it came. 

But the question still stands to the front, and it is 
again asked, What is sound? May not another ques- 
tion be put alongside with it, and ask. What is light? 
The key that unlocks nature to the understanding and 
shows what either is will very probably reveal the 
other. 

As before stated, touching has much to do with 
matter, whether it be the general touch or those 
particular and delicate touches called the smelling and 
tasting. But the seeing and hearing have nothing to 



1 8 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

do with matter directly, though matter in its related 
phenomena may have something to do with them ; for 
the act of seeing light contains within it the sensation 
of unobstructing nothingness. It may be admitted that 
a substantial medium is necessary in order to see and 
hear, but it cannot be admitted that the medium is the 
thing heard and seen, yet the touch gives the sensation 
that obstructive matter produces. Air and ether are 
only mediums for audible sound and visible light. 

If the successive aerial and ethereal waves instan- 
taneously lose their sound and light, and just as in- 
stantaneously create sound and light in the next suc- 
ceeding wave, it may be very clearly perceived how 
that light is continuous at any and all points. But the 
air is not continually producing new sonorous waves 
from the place of its origin. In this respect it differs 
from the sun as a constant center of light and just as 
constant in producing ethereal waves. The air gives 
only one pulse of sound wave, following with a rapid 
disposition to restore a normal condition at the center 
or place the sound was produced. 

The thought of making sound a substance and light 
a substance is the natural plague of materialism from 
which it is hard for the mind to make its escape. It 
is so easy to handle material things, all of which are 
simply obstructions facing the real man, and it is so 
nearly as easy to handle and put under manage- 
ment certain recognized substances not seen as matter, 
that to go one step farther and consider things or con- 
ditions that are really nothing at all is such a trespass 
upon materialistic precepts that he who would do this 
trespass is not likely to receive the appreciation that 
coming years may vindicate. Yet it is a fact that 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

things which are substantially nothing, but to which 
are given a name, are held in contemplation, considered, 
divided into parts, and reasoned upon as though they 
were substantialities. It should not be overlooked 
that, if material things measure so much space, that 
space also reversely measures them. The occupation 
of space by a material body is not at all destructive of 
the space, any more than that space destroys material- 
ity. The one exists as really as the other — the one 
substantial, the other unsubstantial. They simply here 
and there get into uncomplaining partnership. And 
really there is just as much force in space as in matter 
per se. They both contain one another, and so the 
contained and the container are but ideas of relation. 
If the human mind can take hold of things that are 
nothing the same as it can the things that are materi- 
ally something, it affords some evidence that the sense 
of man is not altogether confined to substantialities. 
Seeing, handling, and dividing things that are known 
to be substantial are exercises of the life mind oth- 
erwise than through the material senses. Neverthe- 
less it must be allowed that through this perception 
there is a vision of some kind. 

If matter and all things substantial, except the intel- 
ligent Originator of First Cause, whatever may have 
been the nature of the productive evolution, sprang 
from nothing, then it may be conceived that by the 
exercise of a similar force they may be eliminated 
from the universe. The force that made the universe 
possible is a power that contains the possibility of its 
extinction. The only ground of objection to this idea 
is not one of ability but whether it would be absurd 



20 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

and a reproach to the intelUgent character. The ar- 
gument would be shifted upon moral grounds. 

To affirm that from nothing nothing comes, ana 
from nothing all things sprang, is a contradiction. 
The materialist denies the latter of these propositions 
and affirms the first. In doing this he makes the eter- 
nity of matter a necessity. The opposing class of 
thinkers affirm the latter of these propositions and deny 
the first. In this day they recognize the eternity of an 
intelligent and all-powerful First Cavise. It is on the 
ground that matter is not eternal, but a creation, that 
the argument is continued that the sense of man is 
connected with both something and nothing, and there- 
fore that light and sound need not be substance in or- 
der to be seen and heard. That is to say that the life 
through the eye and ear can see and hear into the 
nothingness of the uncreated condition so far as ma- 
teriality casts reflections and shadows of it. 

The question may be asked : What difference does it 
make with the creative energy as to which was created 
first, the light and sound or the eye and ear that sees 
and hears? None at all; for, so far as vision is con- 
cerned, the eye is needless without the light and the 
light is needless without the eye. All this is true of 
the ear and sound. For reason's sake let it be granted 
that light and sound were first created as qualities of 
substance ; then a being created as man. He must not 
grow into adaptation to the existing creation, for this 
would be a dangerous experiment to his life and also 
a reflection upon the intelligence, power, and moral 
character of his Creator. Considering the consistency 
and order that run through all creation, the man must 
be made adapted to the existing created conditions. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

Hence he was given eyes and ears to catch the unsub- 
stantial quaUties of substance and a touch to feel the 
substance itself; not to see and hear all unsubstan- 
tiality, nor to feel all substance, but with ability to see, 
hear, and feel in part, and in the order of his created 
being and place. He, being material in his body and 
substantial in his life existence, is in a position to feel 
matter and to see and hear the unsubstantial reflections 
and shadows called light and sound. 

Although the very thought of it is bewildering, yet 
there is made no denial of the velocity of 'light, of 
ethereal wave lengths, and that more than six hundred 
trillion waves of light fall upon the most delicate and 
tender organ of the human body each second of time ; 
but a denial must be urged that light is a substance of 
any kind. Attentuate it to the last approach to noth- 
ingness, and still reason would assert that light would 
be ruinous to that organ. But it is needless to use 
further words at this point in the argument. It is 
enough to say that both the wave and emission theories 
of light are, themselves, a virtual proof that light is 
not a substance. When every phase of the question is 
duly considered, it is more difficult to allow that light 
is a substance than to admit that some of the unsub- 
stantial in nature is audible. 

But some one may be disposed to affirm, since light 
is brought into subjection and its colors shown, and 
because it is reflected, refracted, converged, diffused, 
and polarized, that it therefore must be a substance. 
Yet no one has ever affirmed that it is a substance as a 
known fact. It has simply been treated as a substance 
and passed over as such because of its phenomena. 
The world has been taught to look upon it as a sub- 



2 2 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

stance of some kind. The trend of thought has been 
that it looks Uke a substance, has some of the behavior 
of a substance, and therefore it must certainly be a 
substance. As to the meaning of substance, an atom, 
an individuality coarse as discerned matter or more re- 
fined than matter, it may be said that only the third 
measure in geometry can detect it. A line has length 
and extremities, but it is not substance. A plane, 
which is a figure bounded by lines, is not substance, for 
it has no more than an infinity of crossing lines and is 
made of the areas of crossing points. But a third line 
rising from the plane would denote substance, because 
it indicates thickness or depth. Hence a substance 
indicates cubic measure. This, hov^ever, does not mean 
to say that light, darkness, sound, and other unsubstan- 
tial things are without volume. 

As to colors of light, they are seen the same as the 
white light that contains them. They are seen in the 
unsubstantial rainbow and upon a white ground in a 
dark chamber when a beam of solar light is spread out 
by a prismatic lens. If light may be seen as a whole, it 
may be seen in its parts. Anything that can be seen as 
a whole, substantial or otherwise, may be seen in its 
parts until the parts become too infinitesimally small. 
Color itself may be divided into points too small for 
visibility ; and so with white light. Colors appear the 
more distinctly visible because of their contrasts. Col- 
or is no more an obstruction to vision than white light 
that contains the color. The color of an object is in 
the light all the way from the eye to the object. It may 
be illustrated by the rainbow when the drops of rain 
are sprinkling round. The bow appears as a fixture at 
the farthest part of the rain, but the colors are all the 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

way from the observer to the place where the bow is 
seemingly fixed. When a rainbow is seen with a 
mountain beyond it, seemingly the mountain is ren- 
dered invisible by the bow ; that is to say, the color be- 
comes an obstruction to vision. But it is a deception, 
for the whole mountain can be seen only in its colors. 
The zone of the rainbow across it is as much the color 
of it as any other. There is, because of substances the 
atmosphere contains, always more or less reflection of 
light before a great material object is reached. These 
aid in giving colors to the mountain or any other ob- 
ject. Distant objects change in color with the stages of 
atmospheric conditions. On either side of the rainbow 
the sky looks blue, but the sky in the direction of the 
bow looks red and violet, with all the other colors in be- 
tween. This is simply a painting of the colors in the 
sky, an imprint of the colors of the bow on what 
would be the whole sky if there were no bow. The 
color of the sky is only a ground on which the bow is 
painted. It is really white light, but deceptively blue. 
So a white screen which answers the purpose of white 
light is a ground on which the prismatic colors may be 
displayed. Yet they are not stationary as they appear 
any more than the colors of the rainbow, but are as col- 
or all the way from the eye to the place where they ap- 
pear to be fixed. As an evidence that the rainbow is not 
an obstruction to vision, one of its colors is that of the 
sky, and yet that color to all appearance is as much an 
obstruction to vision as any other, and is as fixed as 
any. 

The visibility of colors is a proof of the visibility 
of light. The visibility of light, it being unsubstantial, 
IS proof of the invisibility of matter, which is its oppo- 



24 ^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

site. At least this must be true in any positive sense. 
The invisibility of matter is also evidence of the in- 
visibility of liner or more attenuated substance. This 
throws the vision into the shades and reflections that 
are produced by substantial nature, though these 
shades and reflections be nonsubstantial. Therefore 
many deceptions befall the eyes, and because of it 
about as many the thought of man. These deceptions 
make matter the only thing seen ; whereas light, wheth- 
er as white light or light in its colors, is about all that 
is positively seen by or through the natural eyes of 
man. 

In view of the foregone considerations, light is as- 
sumed to be nothing more than an unsubstantial radia- 
tion or reflection ; also that this unsubstantial light is 
visible to the life through the natural eye of man ; and 
also that the life perceives or sees other nonsubstances 
of nature otherwise than through the natural sense, and 
that the mind labors on these things of perception, 
whether they come through the organs of the body or 
otherwise. Yet it may be that natural or ethereal 
light is necessary only for materialized beings. It is 
the nature of life to see; but it is the office of the 
mind, as the great intelligent quality of the soul, to 
think upon and contemplate the light of anything else 
the soul sees or hears as a fact of vision or sound, as 
well as to consider any material thing the material body 
touches either by the general touch or by those par- 
ticular touches called the tasting and smelling. 

This places man, as a being with soul and mind, be- 
tween matter and the absolute nothingness behind it; 
that is to say, as a created being, he is everything from 
matter to the absolute nothingness of nature, and has a 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

mind that, in a degree, surveys the whole ground. If 
a process of reasoning be indulged backward from his 
material fram^e, there is no escape until there is found 
associated with its being something of nothingness. 
First behind his material body there is recognized his 
Hfe, which must be regarded as composed of sub- 
stance. Behind the life there exists the mind, which is 
a high quality of the life, but whether substance or 
nonsubstance no one seems to know or can know. 
And yet behind the mind there are qualities of its own 
possession such as thought, memory, consciousness, 
pain, sorrow, grief, remorse, felicity, and a host of 
other things that are called and passed over as states 
or conditions of the life or soul. It all shows that, 
so far as substance is concerned, there is exhibited in 
man a feature of nothingness and that he has about as 
close a connection with the nothingness of nature as 
he has with the substance of things. 

Only one more word about the wave theory, the 
probable truth of which is not denied. Does it tell 
what light is? Does it either affirm or deny the sub- 
stantiality of light ? Verily not. Do the great advo- 
cates and teachers of this theory leave any logical in- 
ference concerning the consistency of light upon which 
their pupils may rely? Indeed not. That which is 
wanted is to define what light is. To lecture and write 
about luminous bodies, the action of ethereal waves, 
and the velocity and laws of light do not answer the 
demand nor satisfy. Is light a substance or nonsub- 
stance? If a substance, what kind? If a substance, is 
it divisible or indivisible? If divisible, is it not com- 
posed of corpuscles? If composed of corpuscles, does 
not this in itself endanger the wave theory? Is it not 



26 .MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

meant that the wave theory is based on a principle dia- 
metrical to the corpuscular ? 

Both the wave and the corpuscular theories speak of 
the velocity of light ; and indeed there is great velocity 
of something. But does not the wave theory merely 
mean the velocity with which ethereal action is trans- 
ported, and that ether is given this action by the in- 
fluence of a self-luminous body? Does it claim that 
ether in action is light itself? It is thought not. If 
that were true, inactive ether would be darkness, which 
is but a name for nothing — ^that is, ether is something 
or nothing according to the influence of other things. 

The emission theory assumed that light is substance. 
Is it unreasonable that the wave theory should declare 
on this point and say that light is substance or that it 
is not substance? vSome positive declaration is needed. 
Herein it is declared unsubstantial. The corpuscular 
theory is unsatisfactory, relegated, and now considered 
exploded. Yet that theory held that light is substance. 
It went that far to tell what light is. It declared that 
it is composed of luminous particles ejected from a 
luminous body. Cannot the wave theory declare 
whether or not light is composed of luminous parti- 
cles of substance? It must be something or else it is 
nothing, a mere condition of reflected nature. 

If light is best accounted for under the wave theory, 
is the time not at hand when there should be a positive 
declaration as to what light is — a substance or non- 
substance? Light is not hidden from the eyes, nor 
does it exist in theory like an atom of matter or as 
cosmic ether, but as a positive fact. It is not an ob- 
scurity of thought nor a thing theoretically substituted 
to give an account of something else. It is here, taken 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

in hand, turned about, converged, diffused, and de- 
composed into its various colors. And yet, if it is not 
substantially nothing, who will rise and tell its sub- 
stance, or at least show that it is substantially some- 
thing? I£ light, which is so conspicuously seen, be real- 
ly nothing, is it not passing strange that man has such a 
known connection with the nothingness o£ the uni- 
verse. The very thought of It introduces the follow- 
ing course of reasoning on what may be called 

The Sixth Sense of Man. 

Before entering upon a discussion of the sixth sense, 
it may be necessary to say a few words concerning 
what is to be understood by things substantial and 
things unsubstantial in nature. It must be seen that 
the word things is used because it is hard to find an 
altogether suitable word to convey the idea intended. 
By substance is meant a name applied to something 
that has a real existence as a principle of some kind; 
a thing that, when thought upon, is regarded as actual 
as matter itself, though it may be unseen, unheard, 
and untouched by human sense; a thing derived or 
created; a thing, in whatever degree attenuated, the 
opposite of nothing ; a thing having both extension and 
limitation and filling a place or office In nature in order 
to complete the arrangement of the universe. By 
nothing Is meant no substance; or the absence or op- 
posite of all substance, even as darkness Is the absence 
of light, though light Itself be nothing. By nothing is 
meant the condition of nature, such as it was before 
there was anything derived or created, and such as 
nature Is this day In every place where no sub- 
stance exists. It Is also meant to signify those 



28 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

qualities of substances in v/hich there can be only a 
conception of nothingness; or, as may be stated, the 
mind of man makes a distinction between substance 
actual and qualities unsubstantial. 

This brings the thought up to a consideration of the 
sixth sense in that living existence called man. He, 
being the highest type of earthly creatures, affords the 
best and perhaps the only example for its illustration ; 
for creatures lower than man, not being endowed with 
mind, are scarcely to be regarded as in possession of a 
sixth sense of perception as shall be herein treated. 
For this sense ^ implies mind, thought, and reason 
which they too meagerly possess. It implies that order 
of mind and intellectuality that is impressed, wonders, 
and thinks over the things of perception. Man is the 
only earthly creature of this kind, and therefore in 
treating this sense in him it is a look into him in his 
connected relations with universal things. 

The sixth sense in man, after a fashion, has long 
been acknowledged. There has long been an uncertain, 
mystifying look after it, but its professed existence 
has been through such a haze that courage has always 
broken down at the threshold and emollients poured on 
the soft words spoken about it ; so that all that has been 
said about it, when placed in full catalogue, amounts 
to very little. The profound depths of its existence 
have not been penetrated. There has been lack of 
breadth in its acknowledgment, and for this reason 
proper proofs of its existence have been unattempted. 

Commonly, the sixth sense, differentiating from or- 
dinary sense perception of matter, has been applied to 
such experiences as thirst, hunger, chilliness, pain, and 
such like bodily conditions or states. This is only a 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

surface consideration, for it simply shows that the life 
is sensate of bodily conditions through the operation 
of the life's mind. It is a narrow view of this sense, 
because it shows no relation to extraneous substance 
and phenomena. It shows no connection with exter- 
nal nature like the seeing, hearing, and touching, which 
are built in the body and are the avenues through 
which the soul walks out into the external world, from 
things present which it touches to things in the dis- 
tance both seen and heard. A perception of personal 
conditions and a perception of things detached and on 
the outside are very different. There is quite a differ- 
ence between a consciousness of personal pain or 
pleasure and a consciousness of Saturn's rings, be- 
tween a consciousness of personal hunger and a con- 
scious meditation about light and cosmic ether. 

Bodily conditions are but states of the body recog- 
nized and known to the life's mind. There is a unity 
of being and sympathy through any particular organ- 
ism. If one member suffers, all suffer with it ; if one 
has pleasure, all rejoice with it. Even the vegetable 
kingdom has its experiences under changing condi- 
tions, and each plant is much concerned about its own 
organism. They thirst and hunger, and tell it ; not in a 
voice like man, not with groans and sighs as man, but 
in discolored stem and in wilting, crimping leaves and 
drooping look; and they show their cheerfulness and 
laughing look when arrayed in the morning dew. They 
suffer pain without animal life and without intelligent 
man-consciousness of it, and instinctively eat and drink 
without thought. The sense perception is wrapped 
up in their own organisms and confined to their own 
bodies. The sixth sense, as herein treated, is used in a 



30 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

larger and broader sense. It will be used as the equal, 
if not more than the equal, of those commonly called 
the five senses. And may it not be said that in a sense, 
in comparison with it, the five are in a condition of em- 
barrassment and limitation. They are limited to the 
physical phenomena of matter, its radiation and reflec- 
tions. The Hfe's material body is necessary to connect 
the life with matter, and the five senses are the avenues 
of this connection. For all that is known, life un- 
clothed in matter may be as unable to discern matter as 
life veiled in matter is troubled to discern the meta- 
physical. The senses that are set in the material frame 
are given the life for connection with the material 
world. They certainly and properly belong to this 
service ; but if perchance they catch glimpses of things 
such as Hght and darkness, which are not substance at 
all, it is suggestively a token that in some degree they 
represent or illustrate the sixth sense of man, and that 
this sense has a scope and power beyond human con- 
sciousness or such consciousness as can possibly be- 
long to materialized man. Man, having a dual quality 
of being, can have a consciousness suited only to his 
kind. He perceives many things indistinctly as 
through a smoked glass, so much so that the universe 
to him threatens to remain an unresolved parable. 

The sixth sense of man is of an inner nature, is con- 
cerned with the life principle directly, and covers the 
life as certainly and as generally as touch covers the 
body. It may with reason be affirmed that it is in and 
through the life, the same as touch is over, in, and 
through the body. It is the equal in extension to the 
I seeing, hearing, and touching of the body. The five 

senses are signs, if not proofs, of its existence. Though 



INTRODUCTION. 3 1 

the life that contains the sixth sense seems not to see, 
hear, and touch, yet it is the thing that sees, hears, and 
touches and that receives the sensations that come by- 
means of the natural senses and any other sensation 
that may arise through a sixth sense that has no direct 
connection with matter. To affirm that the soul has 
not and cannot have other connection with the uni- 
verse except through the five natural senses is to af- 
firm the unreasonable and improbable. To assume 
such ground is to affirm that the existence of the soul 
and mind is dependent on the body. This is but a 
crutch of materialism and needs to be put aside. The 
reverse is true, or at least the weight of evidence sup- 
ports the other way. This is the only way of showing 
that the soul can live without the body. It has a sense 
peculiar to itself, and it is herein called the sixth sense. 
But in order that the sixth sense may become more 
perceptible, let man's frame or body be considered for 
a moment. What is it? It is all earthy matter and 
subject to the force of gravity the same as any other 
clod of the earth. It is called a living body, yet con- 
sidered within itself as matter it is as dead as any other 
piece of clay. It has no perception, it feels no sensa- 
tion. It neither sees, hears, nor feels. How differ- 
ent is this from the commonplace idea! The body of 
man is simply a splendid and beautiful piece of ma- 
terial workmanship, an artistic arrangement of matter 
of different kinds with all the functions in harmony 
and built together for mutual assistance and benefit. 
It is full of motion as a whole and full of motion in 
every part. This is what gives it seeming life ; it is that 
which saves it from immediate decay. The hour the 
motion ceases it becomes as any other dead matter. 



32 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Can any one declare and maintain that matter of any 
kind has done or is doing this work upon itself; that 
it produces in itself this bodily and molecular action, 
or that it sees, hears, and touches? If not, what then? 
It is here the mystery begins. Is there not a keeper 
within that pervades this whole structure, that sees it 
all, hears it all, and touches it all? Yet man has only 
consciousness and knowledge that the work is continu- 
ally going on and that repairs are made. But the proc- 
ess of this work is too delicate and modest for man's 
natural sense. He can only know that the creation 
is a continual process and that the work is done, but 
he cannot discern the process nor see the force that 
circulates the blood, that throws out the waste and 
sets in place the new material; but at the same time 
he cannot deny that there exist unseen eyes, unseen 
ears, and unseen touches as well as the unseen force. 

How is this incessant motion in the body continued? 
Why does not the blood at any moment stop at the 
heart and clot itself in the capillaries which connect the 
venous and arterial systems? What is it at the head 
of this force that continually keeps its hand on the lever 
day and night in both the consciousness and uncon- 
sciousness of man for a period of eighty years? 
Though man himself sleeps, this is something that 
never sleeps, something that always sees, hears, and 
touches about its own business ; something of the finest 
discretion, makes choice, receives, rejects, and is free 
from mistakes. Every sight of disordered physical 
function, every sound of struggling blood, every touch 
of undue friction is but a token to the life within and 
a threat of dissolution. The life perceives and the 
life's own mind considers unaided by natural sense and 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

uses its own ways for repairs. But man comes in with 
man's perception, mind, and consciousness as an aid 
with all his discoveries. Man and the distinct life 
within become jointly interested over the body, and 
neither one can be ignored. Each has sense percep- 
tion ; the man has the five natural senses, and the life 
has what is herein called the sixth. 

Perceiving, then, that the life sees, hears, and touch- 
es, and that it is the seat of the senses fixed in the 
body, it becomes plain that what is to be understood by 
the sixth sense comes under the classification of such 
perception as the life or soul has outside of those that 
come through the senses fixed in the body, but not so 
much through the touch as through the hearing and 
seeing. The natural touch is directly concerned with 
matter, but the seeing and hearing with things that are 
not matter. Sound is not matter, nor is light to be re- 
garded as matter. They are to be looked upon as un- 
substantial radiations or reflections. If the life with 
its mind perceives these through the natural senses of 
hearing and seeing, it gives out a large token of man's 
sixth sense, or that power of perception possessed by 
the life disconnected with matter and disassociated 
with the ordinary avenues of sense perception. 

The life mind shows itself through the senses fixed 
in the body and also through its connection by the 
senses with the external world of matter, and makes 
Itself a far deeper and more interesting study than the 
things ah extra with which it is connected. But it 
does not show Itself alone through the natural senses ; 
for it reaches out in no uncertain measure and gives 
proof that it is a thing within itself and fills offices in- 
dependent of the body, though it be always associated 
3 



34 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

with it ; that though the body can do nothing without 
it, yet it can do many things without the body. It 
gives proof that it possesses all the powers of percep- 
tion independently of the body that are manifested 
through it; that the body has nothing to do with the 
faculties of the life mind, but is simply a building of 
convenience to be used and for the purpose of giving it 
connection with the material universe, and for the 
further purpose of giving to the universe a connec- 
tion of life and matter or spirit and matter in that pe- 
culiar duality of intelligence called man. 

The construction of the physical universe indicates 
that there was an era before matter, and that life and 
intelHgence existed. When the era of matter came, this 
gap between spirit and matter was open and remained 
to be filled. Then such a being as man was made to ap- 
pear to preserve the associated harmony and to add to 
the beauty of the wonderful arrangement ; a being not 
of matter but associated with matter, even as every life 
or any force must be ; a being able to discern through 
matter, but likewise able to discern independent of mat- 
ter. In a moral sense this is called spiritual discern- 
ment. 

But now comes the question of the uses and oper- 
ations of the sixth sense. It has been already suffi- 
ciently explained that the life with all its faculties does 
not belong to the body, but the body to it ; and that the 
body holds a place of subserviency to it, and that the 
body is but a means as an artistic and peculiar frame 
for presenting the phenomena, the strength, the pow- 
er, and intelligence of the life mind. But, leaving all 
that behind, there is something in man that sees, hears, 
and touches disconnectedly with the body as well as 



INTRODUCTION. 35 

through it, a spirit mind associated with the body that 
controls it, but' at the same time independent of it. 
Give it the name of the sixth sense as herein called, or 
any other, yet the fact of its existence remains the 
same. Nor is it certain that it is limited to solar light, 
aerial sound waves, or material substance for the oper- 
ation of its sense of perception, for it is the perception 
of the life mind independent of the body, or such per- 
ception as was among the intelligences before the era 
of matter and natural light. 

Man has a consciousnes's of his life and mind action 
distinct from the body, but he has inherited such a 
habit of contaminating it with the body that he scarce- 
ly knows how to consider himself a being at all except 
with the body. At best he seems unable to retrench 
his materialistic ideas. He will hold to the thought 
that his body is the principal thing, whereas it is the 
least part of his existence. Behold him in his inde- 
pendent mind perception and operation. He often 
finds himself thinking, comparing, meditating, calling 
up memories, constructing, planning, and in a hun- 
dred other ways of mind exercise with which matter 
has nothing to do. Because he is related to a subserv- 
ient body of matter it gives no proof of his nonexist- 
ence without it, nor that he could not exercise his life 
and mind as well or even better without it. 

How can it be claimed that all these processes can go 
on without perception? Is not perception the prece- 
dent ? Is it not the nature of the mind first to perceive 
and secondly to revolve and consider the things of its 
perception? But perception implies eyes, ears, and 
touch of some kind. Suppose they are different from 
the senses set in the body, does that prove that they do 



3^ MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

not exist? Verily not, for even those set in the body 
are only physical avenues of the sense perception of 
the life and mind. Within themselves they perceive 
nothing. It may be a great error to think that the life, 
which is the delicate embodiment of sensation, has 
within itself organs of sensation and a perception local- 
ly placed as in the body of man. Should it be true, how- 
ever, it would not at all militate against the sixth sense 
in man that he has ability to perceive and reason inde- 
pendent of his physical frame. 

Reason seems to force the conclusion that the true 
definition of the sixth sense of man is contained in the 
ability of life and mind action independent of the body 
in which they are clothed. It therefore appears that 
both science and philosophy have been made to walk 
on stilts because they have too stubbornly disallowed 
the independence of the mind. Materialism is com- 
pelled to remain thus hampered. Science and philos- 
ophy are too much saturated with materiahstic ideas. 
There can be no halfway ground, and compromises 
are not progress. The life and the life's mind must not 
only be used, but must be enthroned in the thought, or 
else both science and philosophy must remain very 
much as they are to-day. Of course no one would 
have the world to grow chimerically speculative. But 
right reason would suggest that principles should be 
received that are as well warranted as many of those 
which are received in physical science and which are, 
on the basis of a guess, made the ground for structural 
science. 

Now witness the operation of the mind independent 
of the body. And when attention is called in this di- 
rection there is meant a work of the mind in which 



INTRODUCTION. 37 

the natural senses have no connection. It is also meant 
that the mind first had perception of the things it con- 
siders; and if perception, it must have a sense con- 
nection with the things perceived. If the five material 
senses are unrelated to the perception now in hand, 
another sense must be acknowledged to account for the 
phenomena of the mind's work. How is it that the 
mind is able to seize hold of the negative end of uni- 
versal conditions, and yet is not content when such are 
called nothing ? When thus cut loose from the natural 
sense connecting with matter, is it not struggling with 
sense perception after things with which the five 
senses have nothing to do? And does not the mind 
use the same or similar discretion, as when contem- 
plating physical phenomena ? 

Physics says that darkness is nothing. How has 
physics found that darkness is nothing? Because, it 
says, when light appears darkness fades away or dis- 
appears. But what is light? Has it ever been proved 
to be anything of substance? But physics says it 
must be allowed to be something of substance to ac- 
count for its phenomena. Is not physics at this point 
getting on dangerous ground? Is there not at least 
implied a doubt of its dearest child, the well-approved 
and long-cherished wave theory of light? Can the 
truth be established any further than that luminosity 
is a mere unsubstantial condition of nature through the 
consistency of existences? Of course light is a great 
phenomenon and presents to one natural sense of man 
much of both various and marvelous phenomena. But 
what of darkness ? Is it not also a condition of nature 
according to the consistence of existences? But it is 
the absence of luminosity. That is true, yet it is an ex- 



3^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

isting condition of nature. But the senses of man have 
no connection with it. Perhaps the thought had bet- 
ter take a rest at this point. Is not darkness a condi- 
tion or thing of perception? If perceived, is there not 
a sense perception in man that bears relation to it? 
The eyes and the other natural senses sustain a rela- 
tion to physical nature. Through them matter is mag- 
nified, if not glorified. To allow nothing beyond their 
perception is to be a materialist ; to be a materialist is 
to be an agnostic, a doubter, an infidel. 

It is the province of the sixth sense of man to begin 
at the negative end of nature and work toward the 
positive. In this way it follows the course of evolved 
nature which sprang by the force of something out of 
nothing. Since the five material senses are set in a 
material body, it is their office to reverse this order — 
that is, to begin work with the material or positive end 
of nature and go back toward the negative pole. The 
sixth sense and the five senses have a proper place of 
meeting, and that is in man, who, when properly con- 
sidered, contains within himself something of all from 
one extreme or pole to the other. He is the being 
who in his consistence joins the two poles together or 
compasses the whole ground from one to the other, 
for he possesses in his being from the veriest nothing 
to the veriest something of the things of the universe. 
He is the fit representative of all, and Is therefore no 
unimportant microcosm within himself. In him are 
darkness and light, matter and mind, thought and 
reason, life and death, something and nothing. 
Indeed, the things that overstep matter and science 
and belong to philosophy, and which seem to lie out to- 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

ward the border land of nothingness, are the dynamics 
of his being and as absolutely exist as his body. 

A man thinks and then dismisses his thought. It 
see'mingly is gone forever, as anything else that is 
nothing of substance. But the next day memory bears 
the thought back and places it before him, and he thinks 
about his thought. He sees it as tangibly with his 
sixth sense as through material sense the natural eyes 
see the figure or forms of matter. Yet no one would 
claim that thought and memory are anything more 
than qualities of the mind — that is, they are not sub- 
stance. But what does this signify ? Does it not show 
that the mind takes hold of things that are absolutely 
nothing in their consistence? Does it not also show 
that there was a precedent perception, a sense that 
saw the nothingness. The universe is so constituted 
that it cannot help but show its physical reality and 
whatever of reflected conditions and images that fol- 
low ; and man is so constituted that he cannot help but 
see them. In physical nature they are placed before 
his natural ways of perception, but in the immaterial 
universe they are fixed before his pure soul sense with 
certain glintings of them through the natural sense. 

Order and precision belong to mathematical science. 
There is no random work even in its abstruse prob- 
lems and abstractions. This science presents its images 
before the eyes of the soul. These unsubstantial forms 
exist in nature, and they are seen applied in the hoar 
frost, in the snowflake and the crystal. The labor of 
the mind in working a solution of the forms and 
images the soul sees is comparable to the labor of 
the chemist in resolving physical substance into its 
natural elements and of seeking out the qualities. The 



4^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

chemist has before him a material substance; the 
mathematician, a reflection, a form, or image. The one 
can no more create the form or image than the other 
the clod of earth. They are both in search of 'the 
truth. They both see, and in seeing they deal with 
matter, phenomena, reflections, and qualities. Truth 
exists everywhere in the universe, and reflects its va- 
rious forms and images. It cannot be sustained, be- 
cause the chemist deals with matter and the mathema- 
tician does not, that therefore the one sees and the 
other does not. Is not the mathematician laboring as 
hard to prove the qualities of his image, or the truth 
it represents, as the chemist to prove the consistence 
and qualities of his clod of earth or any other' sub- 
stance ? 

But in the case of the mathematician it is called 
image- forming. It is to be hoped by this that it is not 
assumed that the mind can create. If so, it is denied. 
Man is a being created, and in no sense a creator. He 
can see, discover, and apply, and in his application be 
called an inventor. He can no more create an image 
of things than he can the things themselves. Images 
and all substance are things of perception rather than 
a creation. Man's soul and mind are given to him to 
see the conditions of nature, its obstructing substance, 
and whatever unsubstantial radiations and reflections 
may appear; not only to look upon and consider 
the physical, but also the metaphysical. Considering 
the independency of the life and mind in man, he 
certainly has sense perception for this great task, al- 
though he is made to go slow in contemplating the 
things perceived; the five natural senses connecting 
him with physical things and an intelligent or soul 



INTRODUCTION* 4^ 

perception for the metaphysical or supernatural. It is 
enough to know that something of nonsubstance ex- 
ists in nature as a condition, a radiation or reflection, 
and that it impresses itself on the thought by some 
kind of perception. Man knows that he can see the 
light of day without seeing cosmic ether or the orb of 
the sun. He knows that he has a perception of differ- 
ent conditions or states in nature that are no substances 
at all. 

If darkness is a condition of nature because some- 
thing else is absent, it is not a proof that darkness is 
nothing at all ; nor when light clears the world of dark- 
ness is it a proof that light is anything of substance. 
Darkness is certainly nothing so far as substance is 
concerned, and yet it is certainly a thing of perception, 
a kind of thing that the mind contemplates, and has 
cubic measure. The mind perceives that space in sun- 
light and space in darkness are things of different 
consideration ; for space in the one instance has the 
quality of light in it, and in the other the quality of 
darkness; these qualities, being interchanging condi- 
tions or states of nature, are as much qualities of space 
as of anything known. Space does not change its qual- 
ity of nothingness either in light or darkness. Yet 
space, like light and darkness, has cubic measure — 
that is, it has the measure that is applied to substance 
and without which no substance can exist. But space, 
which is nothing, can be occupied by something else 
which IS equally nothing, and there may be a change 
of appearance in regions of nonsubstance, and the mind 
perceives and considers them. 

The idea too generally prevails in scientific circles 
that there must of necessity exist a substantial connec- 



4^ MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

tion between the soul of man and the things perceived ; 
that as the soul is a substance and the things seen are 
obstructing substances, and the body with its fixed 
senses is a substance, therefore some kind of sub- 
stance must intervene all the way to the object of per- 
ception. This is certainly an error; for nature is 
filled more generally with the radiations and reflections 
of substances than with the substances themselves. 
These unsubstantial radiations and reflections are often 
perceptible when the sources from which they spring 
are not. 



CHAPTER I. 
Matter. 

I. Matter is a scarce quantity in the universe. 
Ordinarily and with casual observation we do not 
think this way, for the earth seems large to us, and 
we thoughtlessly and naturally think there is a great 
deal of matter; and really in one sense there is very 
much of it, much of it even in the earth, and much 
more of it when we come to think of the innumerable 
stars which hang out in the distance. But in truth 
we get better ideas of quantities by measures and 
comparisons. Man, with knowledge of distances, 
has only to cast his eyes toward the heavens on a 
starlight night, and he will get a general conviction 
of the quantity of matter in comparison with the 
sphere of space through which it is distributed. 
Those specks of light or glowing flame, apparently 
the size of fire bugs or burning lamps, are no more 
in comparison with the immensity of space than so 
many balls of their apparent size set on the rim of 
the earth's atmosphere five hundred miles away would 
be when compared with the earth's magnitude. In 
comparison hardly equal to the fire bugs which fly 
in the earth's atmosphere. Really it looks scarce, and 
there is not much of it after all when we come to 
compute the distances by which the globes of matter 
are separated. 

When we come to look upon the spheres of matter, 
and compare them with the spheres of contiguous and 

(43) 



44 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

allotted space, the matter of the universe, in the con- 
templation, is reduced to the most insignificant of 
things — so much so that its chief worthiness does 
not consist in quantity so much as it does in its serv- 
ice, being made a foothold and supplying the wants 
of the physical beings that have appeared upon it. 
The spheres of matter, in the comparison made, are 
but lost specks, with only the meagerest acquaint- 
ance with the nearest though distant neighbors. The 
matter of the solar system, so far as it is known, 
occupies far less than a sextillienth of the space 
allotted to it. There are on computation not less 
than ten million cubic miles of space allotted for 
every cubic inch of matter in the solar system. By 
analogy this is the approximate condition of the uni- 
verse. If the matter of the solar system were blotted 
out by putting it in general diffusion, it could not 
be discovered, nor would it produce dimness in any 
fixed star. The matter, dust, the something or noth- 
ing, whatever it is or would be in such attenuity and 
diffusion, is, in the mind of philosophy, considered 
to have been tlie once condition of the universe. 
Even now there is evidence that there is more or 
less uncondensed matter in space. Even granting 
that there is more than is gathered in spheres, still 
it is scarce. 

Concerning the uncondensed matter now diffused 
through space, it seems that at least one of the sev- 
eral opinions must be assented to: (i) That matter 
is more or less again difi'used in space after having 
served a purpose, being ejected from existing or 
once existing spheres; or (2) from some cause it 
has been slow of condensation; or (3) that the prin- 



MATTER. 45 

ciple of gravity did not occupy it universally at the 
same time; or (4) that the force that made it appear 
is still in operation. While at least one of these seems 
to be a necessary acknowledgment to account for un- 
condensed matter, all may be true in a degree ; yet ( i ) 
and (2) of these opinions contain the thought of great- 
est doubt. 

God speaks and it is done, but so far as things have 
a relation with time, it may not be done with the sud- 
denness that some are disposed to believe. Everything 
indicates a gradual process, and there is evidence that 
the physical spheres are still growing. The period of 
man's existence on the earth is too short, and the tables 
of his observation and his period of computation can- 
not furnish data upon which certain great truths could 
be established. Could he have been on the earth with 
present intelligence from the first created things, his 
compiled observation would be in great evidence. 

But let us turn again to matter in its quantitive com- 
parison with space. Indeed, it is so scarce that if the 
principle of unity holding it together had never taken 
hold of it, and the principle of matter had, therefore, 
been left in general and equal diffusion, it could have 
no more been manifested to such a being as man than 
any existing intangible and unseen principle of the uni- 
verse. There would be less evidence of its existence 
than much that is unseen and about which there is 
disputation. Matter could present no phenomena, and 
therefore in a physical sense could not be an object of 
thought. Really, there would be no matter in the 
human conception and idea. Yet there would be no 
annihilation. It would only be the work of changing 
the condition of matter. The whole principle of mat- 



4^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

ter, though unseen and undiscernible, would still be in 
the universe. Nor would this stand against the argu- 
ment of St. Paul, who was not only a religious and 
ethical teacher, but learned in philosophy. He says: 
'The things which are seen are not made of things 
which do appear/^ For the unseen principle of matter 
becoming subject to a force that produced its unity 
and observable form, the unseen would become manifest 
and the things which would then be seen would be 
made of things which did not appear. 

II. Matter is the dead substance of the universe. 
What is meant by this statement is, that it is not only 
destitute of life and energy, but also that it is as abso- 
lutely helpless as any dead carcass, and can within it- 
self give no sign of strength and energy which belong 
to or are attributed to the positively active and .living 
principles of the universe. It is not like a thing newly 
born or created. It bears no characteristics of conceiv- 
able ancestor or creator, inheriting neither life nor sign 
of energy. Dead things and things that cannot at least 
give a sign of energy are neither created nor born. Ges- 
tation, growth, birth, creation, all imply life or energy in 
the being that nourishes and makes, and the productions 
of that life or energy under a natural rule most certain- 
ly must inherit in some degree a similarity of life and 
energy. Helplessness, death, and decay are the re- 
sults of mutation, a withdrawal of some force, its mu- 
tation and destruction. The deadness of matter, there- 
fore, is a sign that it is not in its original state of ex- 
istence. Through what scenes of mutation it has come 
to its present stage and consistence is an obscure his- 
tory; yet when formed as it is it was like a new cre- 
ation, IS called a creation, and is really a creation in the 



MATTER. 47 

sense of rendering the ''unseen" a visible thing, though 
it be a dead universe so far as matter is concerned. 

The existence of matter impHes previous mutation 
for its production, and indicates that by some indefin- 
able evolution, through age or by collision with some 
more powerful principle, it, in some unknowable 
v/ay, has made its appearance as now existing. This 
is not meant to put any discount on the almighty 
Mind and Power — for he is recognized and acknowl- 
edged — but it is to indicate that he is not unmindful 
of means in the advancement of his purposes. Two 
reasons may be presented as the modus that gave ori- 
gin to matter in its visible sense. First, through the 
destruction of the principle of matter as it once existed, 
a change was wrought, and unresisting deadness pro- 
duced, but not annihilation. It must then have become 
the prey of the forces of the universe. Whether it 
would ever, in its diffusion and invisibility, be touched 
by any depended on their nature. But a force existed, 
or, if it did not exist, was made for the purpose and 
did take hold of it and give it condensation and visi- 
bility. Thus, secondly, the unity of matter was estab- 
lished by the force commonly called gravity; not a 
unity by any force, power, or energy in matter or of 
matter, for It is dead, but a unity established by some 
principle that was without coming within, occupying or 
controlling matter into unity whereby it is made mani- 
fest and tangible ; took hold of it and gave it form and 
order, even as other energies and life take hold of It, 
giving the form of a crystal, a tree, an ox, or a man. 
But in the process of making the different things of 
matter the unity Is broken and set at naught, for the 
forces that make new forms or beings of matter appeal 



4^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

not to matter, but to the principle of it for organizing 
new bodies. So matter must, as we perceive, be re- 
solved into its principle, and out of this principle en- 
ergy and life gather the substance of new bodies. 

In all the universe only this category of dead matter 
is a visible obstruction. It is the only thing obstruct- 
ively in touch with every human sense. It blocks the 
human pathway in all directions. Yet it is the only 
channel for knowledge so far as unassisted man is 
concerned. ' Its phenomena lead to other discovery. 
Man must pass through it or stumble over it in every 
quest for enlightenment. He sees it in its helpless 
death, he beholds it in his inertia, and wonders when 
he sees it formed into spheres with great space between, 
and wonders more w^hen he sees the spheres in mo- 
tion with regularity and exactitude. Incomprehensi- 
ble. None of which, as he is driven to acknowledge, 
matter could ever have produced. He wonders as he 
thinks of the plastic hand that forms the crystal, the 
quartz, and a thousand other things he would like to 
understand. And when his thought reaches out into 
the vegetable kingdom and still farther into the animal 
kingdom, and topmost of all he sees ''men as trees 
walking," he is amazed at all that goes on and shows 
forth through the phenomena of this body of death. 
He looks on matter, goes through it in his thought, 
stumbles, and perhaps falls in his bewilderment, not 
knowing, but with great desire to know the truth of 
all these things. He confesses to energy, force, and 
life somewhere, but how to place them in their proper 
relations to matter is his first and great question. Can 
he place them in matter or declare with consistency 
that they are of matter? Verily not, for matter is 



MATTER. 49 

helpless. It cannot act, but must, in order to give it its 
various forms, be acted on and handled. If matter 
could act in simplicity, it might be able to act in com- 
plexity. If instinct be attributed to it, then may it not 
have mind ? Such a thought pursued would lead to a 
deification of matter, and to it should be rendered 
human homage, and to it should be sung hymns of 
praise. Yet how untrue and how unphilosophical ! 

Where, then, must man place this energy, power, 
and life? It must be placed without as something that 
comes within; something from without that comes 
within and produces the order and harmony from the 
listless crystal to the man of reason; something that 
can take hold of matter, resolve it into its former prin- 
ciple, and out of the "unseen" construct a new and 
visible body. But this energy and power cannot be 
seen. No; nor can the resolved matter be seen with 
which they work in constructing new organisms. 
They are both in the dark so far as man's sight is con- 
cerned. It is work in the dark, out of the reach of 
man's eye and intellect. He can only know the work is 
done and look upon the new body when constructed. 
But this energy, force, and life cannot be seen, nor the 
motion of its work, any more than gravity itself. Pow- 
er, force, and life have never been seen, and perhaps 
are forever sealed. Yet they are in all nature, and are 
the dynamics of the physical universe, not of matter 
but in it. It seems almost a proper conclusion, in the 
transmutation of things, that whatever loses its force 
or power becomes, if not changed into some other force 
or power, a dead thing to be handled and utilized ac- 
cording to will and adaptation of other forces. That 
matter is the result of decayed forces and energies. 
4 



so MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Everything material that is enlivened is taken out of 
the body of the dead matter. The principle that comes 
within it is the plastic hand, the energy, the real life ; 
the growing or mobile body, the apparent life. Quot- 
ing the highest authority, with a change of only one 
word without changing the sense, we read : ''Of mat- 
ter thou art, and unto matter thou shalt return." This 
is true of both the vegetable and the animal kingdoms. 
Only the human soul escapes. So far as material 
things are concerned, whether animal or vegetable, 
they rise from the universal grave of matter, and by 
an irreversible principle return again. Whatever 
power, energy, or life may get into this or that clod of 
matter, it is only temporary, for this vast field of death 
finally and always claims its own. Whatever is not of 
matter, but from adaptation, purpose, or end, has be- 
come entangled with or associated with organisms of 
matter, will have perpetuity or destruction according 
to worthiness and utility. Nor can it be determined 
that gravity is to be an everlasting principle. The 
epoch of matter may reach an end in time. In the 
transmutation of things it may as easily disappear. 

Granting that matter is the result of transmutation, 
that by some unknown evolution it has resulted from 
the decay, domination, or supersession of some formerly 
existing principle, which was not matter as man now 
beholds it, it is reasonable to presume that the decayed 
principle was touched and affected in all its parts at 
the same time ; and that matter, therefore, appeared or 
began to appear at the same time. This accords with 
Moses, who, in speaking of the creation or evolution of 
the universe, says : ''In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth." 



MATTER. 5^ 

As to the subject of the creation, it is to be pre- 
sumed that the material universe is coextensive with 
the principle from which it was evolved ; and that the 
principle of matter in its ancient energy and utility was 
of an attenuity that rendered it invisible, a mere sub- 
stance; but that in its wreck, ruin, death, and con- 
finement to the present narrow limits it became the 
visible matter of the universe. It is upon this hypothe- 
sis compressed to within less than one sextillionth the 
space it once occupied. Now take its substance, what- 
ever it is, and confine it by force in such narrow lim- 
its in comparison with the vastness of the field it oc- 
cupied in its energized nature, and it is very likely to 
become, not only in conception but also in consistence 
and likeness, if not in quality, very different from what 
it was. 

III. Matter seeks unity. If left alone in its dead 
and helpless state, occupied as it is universally by one 
principle, it would all go to one place and would all 
be gathered into one great sphere or globe. Unaffected 
by any but this principle alone, it would know nothing 
but straight lines converging at one common center. 
But even in this condition it would find no absolute 
rest, because the force that occupies it and controls it 
would place every part of it at the center, which is 
impossible. Leaving off the thought and idea of lazv, 
which is alien to dead matter, there would be weight 
without the motion of gravitation, a weight propor- 
tioned and inversely as any of the parts would occupy 
a place from the center. Since matter is dead, as has 
been assumed. It has no power over Itself, In Itself, or 
over outside things. Hence the weight ordinarily at- 
tributed to matter becomes manifest and evident, not 



52 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

from anything in matter or of matter that has power 
or can pull, but from some principle that occupies it 
and controls it as a whole and seeks its general unifica- 
tion. It is no more of matter than the principle that 
controls the growth and use of the human body is of 
the dust of the ground or of the human body itself. 
Nor is it necessary here to multiply words on law, on 
instinct, force, molecular action, will, mind, and life. 
It may be well to state, however, that instinct and law 
are nothing more than definitions. They refer to rules 
of action and forces, without possessing the least ener- 
gy within themselves. They are not substance. 

The elementary units in the composition of matter, 
their peculiar affinities and repulsions or any other 
properties and qualities discovered or remaining to be 
discovered, do not destroy or affect the principle of the 
universal unity and the disposition of matter to be uni- 
versally collected into one place and into one body. 
The controlling influence or principle that occupies 
matter as a whole, when restrained in its effort to es- 
tablish a general unity, will establish as many second- 
ary unities as there are divisions of matter held in 
restraint by some principle, force, or motion. The same 
principle that pervades the whole is in all the separated 
parts. It is only defeated here and there, but is never 
shorn of any of its strength. It recognizes distances, 
it is true, but no one in the light of discovery, mathe- 
matics, and science can declare that its strength is al- 
together lost in any part of the universe. 

IV. Matter is in an abnormal or unnatural state. As 
a dead body in the universe it is the great helpless en- 
tity, unresisting, and therefore subject to the forces 
that occupy it, or in some sense become entangled with 



MATTER. 53 

it, causing man as he looks upon its phenomena to be 
deceived and to attribute to matter what should be at- 
tributed toprinciples that have gone into it. In the dead- 
ness of matter, in order that it might appear out of its 
former principle, some force or other principle had to 
occupy it and establish its unity. This is the principle 
that would gather it universally into one place. It 
seems in its nature to contain the thought that the 
universe should be cleared of its matter, or at least 
the matter should be all put to one side and out of the 
way. If this principle, though not of matter, must oc- 
cupy it in order that a dead principle of the universe 
might appear and therefore be reduced to the smallest 
compass and put to one side and out of the way, its 
natural state would be the condition or direction this 
principle would give it. This would be, as already 
stated, straight and converging lines to a common cen- 
ter. Dead matter would not at all be responsible for 
this motion and action, but the principle in whose 
hand it was caught. It is not a concern here as to 
what acts on that principle or from what source it de- 
rives its strength. It is thought best to keep the subject 
as clear as possible and not add to its complexity by 
improperly intruding other matters. 

But the matter of the universe is not disposed and 
concentrated under the influence of a principle that oc- 
cupies it universally and which was concerned in giv- 
ing it visible origin. For its unity and regular order 
have been disturbed. It has been caught in other and 
stronger hands which checked its regular and natural 
course toward centralization and formed it into seem- 
ingly an abnormal but orderly and beautiful arrange- 
ment. Indeed, in the contemplation, matter as it now 



54 M-ATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

exists and is arranged strikes the intelligence of man 
with surprise and wonder, and in the pious mind al- 
most provokes the spirit of adoration. The way in 
which matter in the various sections of the universe 
has been caught up in its divisions and has obtained 
an irresistible balance through the effect of regulated 
distances and motion, so that the principle which would 
bring it all to one place is no longer efficient, awakes 
not only curiosity on recognizing and contemplating 
the forces that have taken hold of it, but also a great 
w^onder as to what hand was in those principles when 
all this was wrought. 

The dynamic forces of nature are unseen, and it is 
impossible to know in what quarter they are strongest. 
Their presence is discernible only in their connec- 
tion with matter. Knowledge of their presence, 
strength, and ways can be gained only through the 
phenomena of matter. What they do, how situated, to 
what extent they dwell, what their attributes or char- 
acteristics outside of matter, what their uses discon- 
nected with matter, where strongest, or whether equal- 
ly powerful universally, are questions speculative and 
can be admitted only as they serve the most reasonable 
purpose in accounting for the present mechanism of 
nature. It almost seems that the principle recognized 
and known as gravity, by its nature either before the 
physical worlds were formed or at least about the time 
they were formed, gathered itself into nuclei In 
places just as numerous as the globes of matter have 
appeared. In this way there were centers of pulling 
force on diffused matter that gave it present construc- 
tion. This idea implies regular order in construction 
and maintenance, giving precision and dispensing with 



MATTER. 55 

the capers of chance that will otherwise creep into the 
thought in the construction of the universe of matter. 
When one thing pulls on another it also seems to pull 
against it. But is it always true ? It must be true where 
there is an exercise of opposing will and power. But 
take it the other way, helplessness at both ends of the 
rope. Which end pulls? Is there any pulling? Can 
there be any ? But when there is force at one end and 
helplessness at the other, the helpless is made subject 
to the force. The nuclei of gravity were central forces 
that pulled upon diffused, helpless, and unresisting 
matter and within proper radii of influence brought 
it together and gave to it, as may be presumed, its 
own motion and order. So that the precision or law 
attributed to matter is rather the precision and rule 
of the forces that control, and matter yields to those 
forces without resistance. 

V. Matter is zvithout law. Law, as applied to the 
spheres or globes, can be no more than a word-name 
for their motion, regularity, and precision. Anything 
that cannot act for itself cannot be under law or have 
law. The force that transfers apparent law to matter 
exhibits its own law and may be discerned through the 
phenomena presented by matter. A man raises his 
arm, but the arm is not raised by a law of matter in the 
arm, although the arm is a member of the living body. 
The arm is raised through the influence of life, mind, 
and will. In point of time the physical act must be 
subsequent to the metaphysical. In this relation the 
law, whatever it is, must belong to the metaphysical 
department ; so that the physical acts of man appear to 
be but a repetition or duplication of the life that is in 
man. Law Is of a higher source than dead matter. It 



5^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

belongs to the realm of things that know no delay, 
where no object can brook their precision, where noth- 
ing can clog or hinder. Not even matter can interfere, 
but is carried along as though it were not ; and when 
matter resolves, meets, and passes with precision, man 
is disposed to think of law in it and attribute law to it. 
But it is the precision and law of the principle that 
take hold of and use matter. 

There is no fickleness in the metaphysical forces of 
nature. There may be sports and breaks in material 
phenomena, but not in the forces themselves. Tl^ey 
are steady and do not change. Law can properly be- 
long only to such a realm ; not a law over them, but law 
in them. Law implies perfection among things that 
cannot speak, perfection in revolution and perfection 
in time. Whatever load is given to a principle or a' 
principle is made to assume perfection is required of 
the principle with all its load. The principle is under 
law or is of nature that cannot be otherwise. From 
this is borrowed the idea of law to man. The law may 
be higher than man, but it means that he shall ap-- 
proach perfection until he shall be in harmony with 
all good. It does not mean so much that he is under 
law, as that law is over him as a master to correct, 
lead, and guide. When he reaches perfection, if it be 
granted that it is possible, the law that was written 
for him on tables of stone or on a papyrus scroll is vir- 
tually blotted out, for the law becomes written in his 
heart, in his mind — in other words, it becomes his 
nature. 

A mere voice to matter without the force of intelli- 
gence, with or without some other force, in either a 
primary or a secondary sense, leaves it as it was. It 



MATTER. 57 

hears nothing, is touched by nothing of power, and, 
therefore, yields no obedience. Matter will be affected 
only in the degree of the constancy or continuousness of 
force. All chemistry shows this to be true of all the 
different kinds of matter now discovered and tested. 
All life and life action is evidence of it. The phenome- 
na presented in chemical processes do not show a bat- 
tle of affinity and resistance in the different kinds of 
matter, but rather a battle of unseen forces. So, then, 
the idea of law, whatever may be understood by it, is 
not in or of the matter, but in the forces that have 
taken possession of it. These forces in their connect- 
ed sense are the responsible agents, either alone or in 
their connected relation to other principles, for all that 
matter is made to do. 

Between any prime voice and matter, unless dead- 
ness is immediately touched, there must exist an es- 
tablished agency of force, or else the deadness will re- 
main forever untouched and unaffected. The truth 
reaches from earth to heaven, from man to God; for 
even that high One uses agencies and forces for the 
accomplishment of his purposes. It is a force rather 
than a voice, or rather a constancy of force in com- 
pany with a continuousness of voice. The Almighty 
not only commands, but also upholds. This indicates 
continuousness of his presence or, if not of his person- 
ality, at least of perfect and constant forces of his 
creation that can be trusted, showing a perfected estab- 
lishment that supersedes law In the dead world and 
makes it unnecessary. If law in the dead world means 
a voice or to shoiw a condition, the word is misleading ; 
if it means an influence in and of the dead world, it is 
not true. 



5^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Not knowing what may have been the once condi- 
tion of the universe, man can look upon it only as it is. 
And in looking upon it he beholds life and death, mo- 
tion and rest, force and helplessness, and through it all 
the hand of mechanism, even in the territory of chem- 
ical destruction. He sees forces at work both building 
and destroying, and with the same strength in all ages. 
He knows not the work they do among themselves, for 
they are too deeply metaphysical for his own mind; 
but he does see them go down into the dead world, 
lay their hands upon helpless matter, and impart to it 
in visible sense some of their own characteristics, re- 
vealing as far as is possible through matter what they 
are, their unabating strength, their order, their con- 
stancy, and their precision; restoring, in the midst of 
many a wreck, to utility again according to the will of 
a Final Cause. But in all this work law is no more to 
be attributed to the dead world that is handled than to 
the material used by mechanics and artisans in the 
construction of their buildings. It is only through 
matter, or the dead world, that man is enabled to get 
knowledge of the forces existing in nature, and, if so 
be, their laws. But really, if it be granted that these 
forces in their several departments are constant and 
perfect, they are incapable of change, and therefore law 
would be unnecessary, a mere imagination of the mind, 
a mere statement of natural conditions. 

It is said that the fall of an apple awoke the serious 
thought of Newton, who was at the time in a medita- 
tive mood. In that meditation he discovered a principle 
and gave to it the high-sounding title of law, the law of 
gravitation. But what was it Newton discovered? He 
saw that material objects pull upon each other. But 



MATTER. 59 

did he see that they pulled upon each other by a force 
connate in matter or of matter ? Verily not. He only 
spoke of matter and gravitation in matter. He ex- 
plained nothing as to how this force dwelt in matter, 
nothing as to whether or not it was of matter, nothing 
as to whether it could exist without matter. He made 
a great discovery and applied it universally in its mode, 
rule, or law of operation, and blessed humanity with 
great truth and knowledge. But he did not grapple 
with or attempt investigation of the principle of gravi- 
tation beyond the effect it has on material things. He 
left the inference, and others have followed and pur- 
sued the same thought, that force is in matter, of mat- 
ter, connate with matter. But is not matter dead ? Is 
there any force or power in it? Can there be? Is it 
not reasonable that there should be helpless things in 
the universe to be exercised and controlled by existing 
forces and powers ? If not, what conception can man 
have for the necessity of force and power anywhere? 
It would imply battle and collision with each other, un- 
certainty, danger, disaster, ruin, and destruction. It 
must be that the forces of nature are perfect, and 
therefore arranged in harmony with each other. Mat- 
ter in its helplessness, handled as it is altogether by 
forces, may here and there hold out signs of its weak- 
ness. It may tend this way or that way and show 
that it has no defined path of its own making; and, 
for all man knows, a species of deadness may have en- 
tered into the unseen world, even in the realm of in- 
telligence. It matters not. Wherever any grade of 
deadness appears the perfect forces seize upon it, con- 
centrate it, imprison it, and control it. This is the 



6o 



HATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



self-preservation of the universe. Not that there is no 
God, but that God has made them so. 

The idea of law has so prevailed and has taken such 
root in the thought that matter cannot be looked upon 
as a whole, or in any of its various relations, or in any 
of its particular kinds without admitting the idea of 
some cognate law that controls it. This verily is the 
advancement of a thought into force, or a voice or a 
law into a principle ; whereas a thought, a voice, a law 
are as nothing in the dead world. The highest voice 
may speak into the dead world, and to the dead man, 
call him by name, and command him to come forth 
living again; but there is more unseen and unheard 
than in the mere command. The voice is spoken into 
the dead world, and in the eyes of all beholders to the 
dead body, but a mighty principle must act in the liv- 
ing world and put life back into the dead. Here a 
voice is heard, admittedly the highest, yet force must 
be admitted also to get anything out of the dead world. 
A life must go out of the living world into the dead 
to reanimate the dead matter. A voice dependent on- 
the air or any other medium is but an expressed 
thought or intention. It Is the action, the energy of 
principles In immediate connection, and not the contac- 
tual result of voice or law. Nothing can be declared 
self-acting absolutely except the uncreated. The phys- 
ical spheres and unintelligent forces are but struc- 
tures placed in the order of their being, in rest or mo- 
tion, and unable to do otherwise than Is done; for in 
them is neither mind nor will. And since in them 
there is no mind and will, there can be no confusion, 
no hastening ahead, no getting behind, but perfection 
In being, and therefore harmony and precision. Law 



MATTER. 



6i 



as a word applied to all these things is but a word 
that expresses their order, harmony, and precision. 
The only possible way of changing this harmony and 
order must be, in man's conception, an exercise of the 
power that establishes them. 

VI. But there are different kinds of matter in the 
earth ; not in the sense, however, that the principle of 
gravity is differently affected toward them, but in the 
sense that they are differently affected toward one an- 
other. Gravity remains the same toward them all, 
claims them all, influences them all. But other princi- 
ples have intermingled themselves with matter and ex- 
ercise an influence on the different kinds of matter ac- 
cording to affinities, repulsions, or indifference. In the 
exercise of these forces man's knowledge is gained 
mainly through observation and experiment of the 
earth's matter. With such introspection and examina- 
tion man obtains a data upon which he may logically 
infer concerning other spheres of the material universe. 

The matter of earth, considering its different kinds, 
is in an unregulated state and out of all harmony with 
itself, so much so that the earth is incapable, as a 
whole, of any dynamic influence or power. According 
to all indications, it must forever remain in its helpless 
deadness unless some evolution, if ever and if possible, 
puts the different kinds of matter in proper proportion 
and place. Till then, and not till then, can man con- 
ceive of any indwelling energy in it or that it can 
possess any dynamic influence. Such an arrangement 
of order would seem to indicate the first step toward 
preparing it for dynamic influence, even if then it could 
be possible. If it be lawful so to speak, in order that the 
earth may be lifted out of its deadness, as a first step, 



63 MATTER, MAN', AND SPIRIT. 

it needs all its ribs in place and every other part. This 
would be very different from the irregularity of the 
present disposition and arrangement of the different 
kinds of matter which under the influence of certain 
principles are, as it were, struggling for their respec- 
tive unities. 

An idea of design will intrude in the seemingly 
reckless manner in which the different kinds of matter 
are distributed and commingled. But without a word 
here in that direction the earth, in the eyes of the be- 
holder, is formed as any other dead and wasted thing 
with intermingled constituency of parts and kinds of 
matter. Allowing that with more regularity in the 
different kinds of matter it might still have been 
equally productive, but, perhaps, with change of forms, 
habits, and modes of life, yet in view of the uses 
which as a whole it subserves, the present irregularity 
and arrangement o-f the different kinds of matter are 
for the best and even necessary ; not only that the phys- 
ical universe might appear, but also for the best de- 
velopment of things that have appeared upon it. 

It may be that in growth and the interchanging 
work about the different kinds of matter, the mat- 
ter itself, by some force or energy, is resolved back 
into its unseen substance, and that from this substance, 
under selection, the materialization is again renewed 
in order to produce particular forms of matter. Any 
way that mysterious principle causing growth, unseen 
itself, must work with the invisible in order to pro- 
duce the visible in the different forms of matter in 
both their simplest and their compound relations. It 
may be that the substance of the earth, as it once ex- 
isted unmaterialized, possessed then substantially all 



MATTER. 

the different kinds of elements that belong to the pres- 
ent materialization. But with such a grant of opinion, 
whatever may be the irregularity of the different kinds 
of matter in the materialized earth, it seems that it 
must have been in orderly arrangement, and all in 
proper place in the unseen substance of matter. Since 
they contain within themselves the rule of mathemat- 
ical precision, all dynamics must be in regular propor- 
tion. Since fluorine, as an example, exists as an ele- 
ment in the composition of the earth, it not only shows 
its regular proportion to certain other composites, but 
also indicates that its quantum in the earth, as a whole, 
has a proportion to every other composite element and 
to all matter that the earth contains. But from this it 
would amount to no more than hypothesis to conclude 
that proportion must, in order to produce the best ef- 
fect, be the same in both substantial and materialized 
matter. That is to say, that the quantum proportion in 
substance is or may be different from the quantum pro- 
portion in matter. This is at least a conceivable way, 
that where there was energy and force once, by muta- 
tion the energy and force cannot occupy the changed 
body. That is to say, that the forces that may have 
occupied the substance of matter were different from 
the forces that occupy and control matter materialized. 
That which has been stated of fluorine may like- 
wise be stated of aluminum, sulphur, 'mercury, or any 
other composite of the earth's matter. These different 
kinds of matter or different elements of the earth's 
matter are simply out of place or are in a condition of 
great irregularity and confusion. The very condition or 
confusion of the elements of the substance of the earth, 
or of the different kinds of matter, indicates that, in its 



64 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

helpless death, it is the wreck of some former existence. 
If it is allowable to use an analogy, it may be said that 
no bone is in its place, no tissue, no nerve, no joint, no 
anything as a sign of energy. Yet the elements of a 
former state remain, disconnected, disordered, and 
therefore shorn of strength, as anything else of which 
man may conceive lying in death and decay. 

In every material existence, whether of life or death, 
organic or inorganic, there is an abundance or a scar- 
city of the different kinds of matter, and all propor- 
tioned to the existence, whatever it is. Because all 
matter is not the same kind of matter, "all flesh is not 
the same kind of flesh. '^ A wonderful number of or- 
ganisms appear because there are different kinds of 
matter. The variety is seen as though the different 
combinations are equal to the product of the elements 
put imder the rule of permutation. Yet in each or- 
ganism there is more or less abundance and poverty so 
far as the natural elements of matter are concerned. 
Yet the elements are more securely in proper place 
than in ordinary earthy matter. Yet all these organ- 
isms are in a condition of decay and death but for the 
repairs constantly made. Whenever any kind of mat- 
ter has served its purpose or becomes exhausted an- 
other of the same kind takes its place, and this is re- 
peated until the end of the organism, when it becomes 
as other earthy matter, where there is no regular rule 
in the application of the different kinds of matter. 

That which is true of the abundance and scarcity 
of different kinds of composition in organisms is like- 
wise true of the earth's great body of matter when con- 
sidered as a whole. Some of the elements are exceed- 
ingly scarce, as chemists are well impressed. Per- 



MATTER. 65 

haps some are so scarce that they will never become 
known unless by the merest chance. They are here 
in their respective quantities with the visible earth. 
They are very much out of the orderly arrangement 
in all earthy matter, of which their orderly arrange- 
ment in all organisms is proof. A disarrangement 
of their regular order in organisms produces at once 
sure signs of decay. When life or force is inadequate 
to the task of keeping up this regular proportion or 
to perpetuate it, decay and death become a natural re- 
sult. 

Taking the earth as a whole, it may be that the 
different kinds of matter once performed a better office 
than now. The very knowledge which man has that 
there are different kinds of matter is, when meditated 
upon, supremely indicative in his own thought. Why 
all matter is not the same or more nearly the same, 
or why matter is not of greater variety in its kinds, 
is a thought that is not limited or concerned with its 
present application to existing organisms, but reaches, 
though obscurely, intO' an antedating period when 
matter was not of its present consistence, nor could it 
serve its present purposes of utility. 

Granting a former but not eternal existence of the 
principle of matter, which is by no means the least of 
probabilities, the different kinds of elements which 
gave it useful connection and strength must have been 
properly placed. The material forms which man be- 
holds do show utility of orderly parts and connection 
by properly proportioned elements. Should all matter 
become invisible, into which condition particular mat- 
ter must be resolved before there can be growth of 
an organism; should all matter be resolved into the 
5 



66 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

invisible principle of itself, may it not be that by its 
freedom to have its parts more easily arranged into 
other and better form it would possess more 
strength than now? Out of the resolution of matter 
into its substantial state growth and new organisms 
are produced ; at least this seems the conceivable way. 
It is the process of form creations from substance. 
Then does not this suggest that energies take hold of 
the substance of matter, of substance uncondensed, or 
substance of resolved matter, and out of it construct 
the myriads of forms which appear? If in evolving 
the creation coarse matter appeared out of a substance, 
may it not be that all the particular forms of it are 
gathered from the same substance? Accretion and 
growth are processes as refined as they are mysterious 
and invisible. As applied to this process, discourse on 
m.olecules and atoms is not fully satisfactory. 

VII. Man is not altogether without evidence that 
there is a limit to the matter of the universe. Yet the 
earth and — may it not be said ? — the whole solar system 
are situated far from the nearest encompassing bound- 
ary. Man may turn his eyes in any direction above, 
and it is matter, and matter beyond matter, as shown 
in the twinkling stars. And when he calls the tele- 
scopic lens to assist his vision, there is nO' relief in any 
direction, for it is world of matter beyond world. 
Even imagination may reach out until arithmetic be- 
comes confusion, and still there is no relief, for noth- 
ing is found or known of the boundary. Unless some 
data can be found upon which reasonable opinion may 
be constructed, man is forced to exclaim : "Space and 
worlds of matter everywhere and of equal extent !" 

But the principle of the unity of matter affords some 



MATTER. 67 

evidence of its limited existence. It would all gather 
itself into one place. This is its first and universal 
tendency. It does not now fill all space, but only a 
small part of it ; to so speak, just a few points in space, 
as the globes of it do show. Were it free from all 
counter action, and were it at liberty to be controlled 
only by the principle that seeks its unity or, as is com- 
monly called, gravitation, it would in time conceivable 
gain and establish its unity, thereby disestablishing 
its interspersion and manifestly be very limited in its 
extension. The influence of drawing it together 
would be felt everywhere, and the strongest pull would 
be at the common center, or on all the numberless lines 
that pass through it. It would thus approach the 
center of gravity for the reason that more matter in 
relation to any of the parts would be on these lines 
respectively. If such a principle prevailed unembar- 
rassed in matter, whatever may be the ideas of the 
extension of it in the universe, one of two things must 
be affirmed: First, that matter would be afifected in 
the remotest parts of its existence and take up its line 
of march toward a common center ; or, secondly, that 
some of it is too remote to be touched and made sensi- 
ble of this principle of unity. But this latter afifirma- 
tion would be untenable, for there could no more, in 
human conception, be an end to the influence that 
would bring matter together than an end to space 
itself. The only possible end to the influence would 
be the end of matter, the end of the existence upon 
which the principle or influence lays a hand, takes hold 
and grapples. Under such an influence matter would 
be compelled to leave its remotest border and get 
within a narrower compass. Hence in view of the ex- 



68 MiATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

isting principles of unity in matter, the conclusion is 
reached that at least a sign is given unto man that 
the sphere of matter is limited, and that, therefore, 
there is a boundary to the physical universe. 

But further, every material globe of the universe 
has its boundary lines limited not only in component 
material, but also there is a limit to each in the sphere 
of circular motion. Man is able to see a part of what 
may be considered the whole, and indeed a great mul- 
titude of parts. These are all filling offices and places 
in the universal system of matter. They are graded 
with very unequal quantity and magnitude, with un- 
equal but unchanging periods, with nearer or farther 
proximity, with a perceptible influence or sense of 
each other's existence; so that what man sees may 
be regarded as parts of a whole system which he be- 
comes able to apprehend, a system with center and 
circumference, a complex system that has a boundary — 
all of which is impossible if there is no limit to the 
interspersed matter of the universe. 

Man can have no conception of a limit, such as 
eternity, a center and circumference of space, or any- 
thing else which he conceives to be illimitable; nor 
can he have conception or reasonably judge of things 
that never show him any of their parts and never ex- 
hibit to him a sign of something in a great system, 
the connection it holds, its importance to the system, 
the office it fills, and the work it does. But in the 
material universe each part performs an office, each 
part is a recognized function of the whole; and if a 
part is recognized as needful rather than perfunctory 
in its relation, the material universe is composed of 
parts, and these parts, taken together, constitute the 



MATTER. 69 

whole; and If each part is Hmited, the whole, what- 
ever its extension and multitude of parts, must Hke* 
wise be limited in extent to the quantum and dis- 
tances of the parts. 

VIII. The age of matter, or rather the age that it 
has been gathered in spheres like the earth, is a great 
question. If it can be determined with any good de- 
gree of exactness, it would be a settlement of much 
disputation. If matter is eternal, then materialistic 
philosophy is planted on a sure basis. If even the 
substance of it is eternal and has at some period been 
materialized, then materialism or — may it not be said? 
— pantheistic materialism has the victory; and, if es- 
tabHshed, debate has come to an end. If matter never 
made its appearance until six or eight thousand years 
ago, as some have conceived through a misunder- 
standing of Moses, then indeed matter is of very re- 
cent origin. 

The question points either to the eternity of mat- 
ter, which implies its self-existence, or to some point 
in time when its existence began. Either the one or 
the other of these propositions is true. The former 
of these propositions suggests a materialistic philosophy 
which produces the denial of an intelligent and all- 
powerful first ca%ise; and as a sequence, modern skep- 
tical evolution has followed; and evolution, it is to 
be feared, rather impatient and prejudiced. Human 
experience and observation teach man that matter 
now exists ; that, although it is not well known, 
it is the best known substance of the universe. It 
speaks to man from every quarter and invites him to 
look on it, handle it, examine It, analyze It. In Its 
helpless deadness it is incapable of any art or device 



70 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

that would deceive. Even the other worlds of matter 
in their distant circuits look down as shining lights, 
telling man where they are and affording all possible 
assistance for his help and investigation. 

But man must look to the earth for his greatest 
data in forming judgment and coming to a conclusion 
about the age of matter. Yet, when he looks upon 
the earth, he may have a conception of the existence 
of matter without its being formed into globes. But the 
first step to be taken in the investigation is to look 
upon the earth. Take the earth as it is now; and if 
any one thinks that the period of the earth's existence 
tells the age of matter, he has made a point toward a 
correct conclusion. The earth bears the marks of age 
even of long existence, but it gives out no data upon 
which it may be reasonably affirmed that it is of eterni- 
ty. Allow to geology all that it has ever claimed, to 
paleontology all that it has ever produced for consid- 
eration, yet they only point to sections of time, one 
section preceding another, but none to infinity, none 
age-lasting. 

If the age of matter be postulated in the nebular 
theory of fire dust and allow that the earth and all the 
worlds were thus formed and originally in great heat, 
it is needful, even in that instance, only to allow suffi- 
cient time to cool into the present condition and tem- 
perature. The argument for the eternity of matter 
would be contained in the fire dust of matter, if not 
to some anterior date. But this class of argument 
leads to infinity, and therefore is worthless among all 
mutable things ; or rather may it not be affirmed that 
existing things subject to mutation are creatures of 
time, began in time, and may cease existence in time?' 



MATTER. 71 

Nothing is of the highest concept but the unchangea- 
ble, and therefore the eternal. 

If any one looks upon inorganic matter, he sees 
nothing in its compound or in the changes wrought in 
it that indicates to his mind anything more than time 
and age. If he looks upon the different kinds of mat- 
ter as pure elements, or in their complexity, there 
comes no voice of their eternity. If he looks down 
into the earth and beholds what has been wrought 
through slow processes or by cataclysmic action, no 
voice salutes the ear of understanding except time. 
If he looks upon the tops of mountain ranges and 
considers that the plains of the earth were once on 
a level with these, he has to think only of the effect 
of waters and the erosion of time to find an answer. 
He may conceive that that which was may return and 
be again. If he looks into the first fossiliferous stratum 
of the earth, he is only counting in the time when 
they lived, grevv^, sported, and passed away. If he 
looks down through the remains of all that once lived 
upon the earth, down through the solid crust into the 
central livid mass, he beholds only a process of cool- 
ing, and speculates on time, when it will all be 
finished. 

When we look upon matter, so different from empty 
space as we view it, so different from other mani- 
festly existing but invisible things, so different from and 
with so wide a gap between it and all else of which 
we have or may not have conception, and of which 
we can know only in part, we become prone, in our 
short vision and prejudiced understanding, to attach 
to it more than its proper share of importance among 
the things of the universe, and allow to it powers and 



72 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

a reverential age beyond measure. But the time is at 
hand when, through the enhghtenment of the under- 
standing, no knee shall bow to it for evermore. 

When matter is looked upon as the weakest and 
most helpless thing in all the universe, within itself 
destitute of all force and action, always subject to the 
forces that gather about it and in it, ever changing 
without any resistance or effort to maintain a constant 
form, always being but without strength, just anything 
except annihilation — we may say when we look upon 
matter as such that its importance and existence as a 
thing in the universe become of lower estimation. 
The thought will recur that, if it was never capable 
of being a producer, it must of all things have been 
produced; that there was a time in eternity when it 
was not, and a later time when it appeared. If it 
should be argued that matter is not now as it once 
was, that its present form and appearance have re- 
sulted out of its former principle, it would be of no 
weight in arguments to sustain the eternity of mat- 
ter; for the argument made to sustain eternity would 
allow in the eternal thing the principle of mutation, 
which is self-contradictory. Therefore there exists 
the strongest ground for believing that the globes 
or any other conceivable forms of matter in all the 
universe had a beginning. 

If we look upon matter gathered into globes, but 
in conceivable diffusion, we are forced to look upon 
the same weakness and deadness that are In its pres- 
ent nature. It could never have constructed itself as 
we now behold. A dead body cannot move itself; 
helpless diffusion cannot construct. Matter has ob- 
tained its present frame by the action of forces that 



MATTER. 73 

took hold of it. Its stability in its present construc- 
tion and arrangement is altogether dependent on the 
constancy of the forces that hold it in hand. Should 
they desert it altogether, it is as conceivable that mat- 
ter would become nothing as to be anything what- 
ever. If once in time forces took hold of matter and 
held some relation in its original manufacture, it gives 
no proof that they will maintain their constancy for- 
ever. They may be feeding on a principle that man 
knows not of, and which may be subject to exhaustion. 
Then may come that inconceivable end beyond the 
range of human thought, the end of an old and the 
beginning of a new epoch in universal history. 

But, referring again to the age matter, the first 
conclusion at which we arrive is that it is a creature 
of time. Moses treats it as such in giving an ac- 
count of the manner in which the worlds were framed. 
Referring to matter, or to the uses made of it, he 
says: "In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth." He does not declare whether or not that 
was the beginning of matter. But man is made to con- 
fess that it was the beginning of those forms of mat- 
ter that exist at this day, so far as the material spheres 
are concerned. Nor does that inspired writer say 
how modern or how ancient that "beginning" was. 
From his statement there can be drawn no positive 
logical inference as to years or cycles of time. He 
was not concerned with date or philosophy, but with 
a great truth. Therefore he acknowledged and taught 
by inspiration that "God created." 

Now if the formation of the material systems of 
the universe is to be regarded as the beginning of 
matter, then matter is modern in its appearance. Al- 



74 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

low to geology and paleontology all the years they 
can reasonably claim, even into the millions, if de- 
sired, yet we repeat that matter, in comparison with 
our conception of greatest time, would appear to be 
of very recent origin. It would appear only as yester- 
day in comparison with cycles of days before; and 
indeed matter could not appear to man in any other 
forms than those it possesses. Take from it its forms, 
and it is incomprehensible and undiscoverable. 

If the age of matter is to be investigated beyond 
its forms, as addressed to the human understanding, 
it leads to investigation in a territory where there 
may be conception, but with little or no knowledge. 
It is the territory where thought assumes to grapple 
with the unseen principle of matter, if indeed such a 
principle existed. Allowing that such a principle did 
exist before matter assumed form, and that it is pos- 
sible for material forms to cease and matter be re- 
solved again into its principle, there can be no ap- 
proximate fixed date in human thought as to the or- 
igin of the principle of it. The highest conception 
would be that the present materialization is but one 
in the catalogue of changes. The most that could be 
successfully established is that matter, in form or with- 
out form, visible or invisible, is not eternal. The mu- 
tations to which it is subject are convincing testimony 
of this truth. Of course at this place we are speaking 
of matter as a whole, and not of those imaginary be- 
ings, or "manufactured articles," recognized in science 
as "atoms." 

IX. Having now considered matter as a whole, hav- 
ing looked on it in world structure, both in diffusion 
and formed into spheres or globes, invisible and visi- 



MATTER. 75 

ble; having also looked upon it in its different kinds, 
it seems but just that it should be considered in its 
minuttst forms, in its atoms. It exhibits its phenom- 
ena both as a whole and in parcels of one kind, and 
may be examined in exceedingly small quantities, but 
not in its ultimate divisions. While the atomic the- 
ory is acknov^ledged to be a fine conception and a 
splendid basis upon which to build physical science, 
yet there remains something paradoxical in the idea 
of an atom of matter. It remains to be proved 
whether an atom is really matter or a pure creation of 
the mind, whether an atom is matter or something 
else that must come together to begin matter. When 
a man undertakes to delve into the hidden recesses 
of the infinitesimal he so far loses his understanding 
that he is apt to grab for something upon which he 
can stand and rest, something for breath, just any- 
thing that satisfies the distress ; and how often in the 
course of philosophy and science have these things 
proved unreal ! 

Because there exists different kinds of matter af- 
fords no more proof that an atom exists as matter 
than if there were only one kind. The chemist, after 
all his discovery of the different kinds of matter, their 
affinities and repulsions, their regular weights and as- 
sociation, the way they compound together or destroy 
the structure of one another by unseen forces, which 
he calls laws, is as much- lost in his idea of an atom 
of matter as the common man. They are all alike 
driven to look into the infinitesimal, all searching 
alike for a beginning. No one can tell oi its size, 
shape, weight, or which of the solar colors it reflects 
or which it absorbs; really can tell nothing about it. 



7^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

But he logically infers this or that when any mass 
of earthy matter is put to the test. But whether his 
inference would bear him out into the region of this 
infinitesimal being remains a question. An atom 
cannot be tasted, nor can any multitude of them of 
the same kind. 

Whether an atom of conception, set all alone to it- 
self, is more than an ideal thing as is an imagination, 
a center, a circumference, or as is a geographical line, 
remains to be proved. How much of the infinitesimal 
must come together, or how many of the small con- 
ceivable "articles" must come together to entitle it to 
the name of matter, is absolutely unknowable. Yet the 
conception of atoms is a good basis for science as it 
now stands. 

The idea that an atom is something real has ob- 
tained through chemical analysis and has gone out 
from the thought of science into an acknowledgment 
of the philosophical world. Well, really, taking a 
view of atoms as is ordinarily conceived, it all appears 
true and clear to the understanding. But the thought 
implies a great deal, and perhaps a little too much. It 
tells that our globe is formed of as many little globes 
as there are atoms in its constitution. As recognized 
science would teach, each one of those little globes is 
detached, in proximity to but not touching the one next 
to it. Then since there is recognized space between, 
may it not be pertinently asked: What occupies that 
space between ? Evidently there is resistance, but what 
is it that resists? To discourse on laws, their nature, 
or on the nature of atoms in this instance, is not sat- 
isfactory. May not that something that resists, in the 
beginning size of its parts, be as great and as im- 



MATTER. 77 

portant as the beginning size of matter? Is that fe= 
sisting principle a substance ? 

With due respect to atoms, as physical beings, upon 
which as a basis physical science is constructed, it is 
asked whether man has ever had a true conception of 
what is taught, and ordinarily believed, to be atoms 
of matter? If they are beings that a man can con- 
sider, he must go out in his thought into the border 
land of the infinitesimal, into that unseen territory 
where nothing begins to be something, and, transverse- 
ly, where something may begin to be something else or 
nothing at all. Man may look upon this line, this edge 
between, but when he looks into this strange territory 
he is not contemplating a line between something and 
nothing, but between two somethings, between matter 
on one side and something on the other; a principle 
that was not matter, but which under some kind of 
evolution became matter; not matter of lump size, 
but of such particular fineness that its existence could 
never have become known unless a force had col- 
lected it into masses that present their phenomena. 

Man may even be allowed to look back behind what 
may be conceived to be atoms, behind that border 
land where matter begins, even beyond the principle 
out of which it made its appearance; but in this in- 
stance does not the thought approach another border, 
another line? Is the principle the end, the original? 
Or does not another line interpose? How came the 
existence of this principle that seems to have con- 
tained the elements of the atoms of matter, even as 
atoms of different kinds are the elements of the earth's 
substance ? Is there something or nothing behind this 
principle? If nothing, the principle is eternal. But if 



78 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

eternal, it would have possessed an indestructible and 
unchangeable unity. There must be, therefore, a line 
between it and something else — on this side the princi- 
ple, on that the other thing, the something else; even 
as in matter, on this side the atoms, on that the 
something else, the principle that contained the ele- 
ments of the atoms. 

The idea prevails that matter is something, and all 
else is substance, nothing. The word ''substance" is 
ancient, but it was invented, as the general name ap- 
plied to all things not matter and of matter — that is, 
there are substances that are not matter ; but that mat- 
ter is substance, and more than substance. Of course 
this seems like putting matter in the upper story of 
the thought and respectability. Hence, under the idea 
that creation is finished and of impossible annihilation 
of matter, there exists outside of it next to nothing or 
simple substance; and while there are recognized oth- 
er existing substances, there is made little difference 
between an influence or force and that substantiality 
that produces the action. 

It is easily discerned that there is a difference be- 
tween matter and gravity, for matter is helpless, but 
gravity is an influence and force that gives to it both 
weight and motion. As forces or influences dwell in 
matter and control it, and as they may be regarded as 
nothing or blind except as they are exercised by some 
anterior substance that holds the office of responsibil- 
ity, and whereas means appear to be substituted every- 
where between the principle that would give motion 
to a body and the actually produced motion, therefore 
the influences and forces that operate all bodies must 
be themselves attributed to some anterior substance as 



MATTER. 79 

their own foundation. So, then, forces or influences 
may be regarded as midway between the operator and 
operated in the invisible world, even as they appear to 
be midway between the visible and invisible, between 
matter and substance. 

As forces and influences are within themselves sub- 
stantially nothing, anything that produces them must 
be substantially something, whether of matter or of 
substance. So that, without casting about for- the 
possible, there is reason for believing that the ma- 
terialization and immaterialization of principles ac- 
counts for much that now appears. This would 
bring forth the thought of unity in the creation, but 
that the multitude of. mutations through evolution 
has produced the universal variety. Indeed, when 
man is called to look upon growth he stumbles, 
but, in present science, rests right at the verge of ac- 
knowledging that matter must be resolved into its 
principle before there can be such a mysterious thing 
as growth. He stops with a ''manufactured article,'' 
called and known in science as an atom. Yet the atom 
at which he stops is a thing entirely out of his knowl- 
edge, merely a thing of conception. He acknowledges 
that matter must be previously resolved into its ele- 
ments, atoms, before there can be growth. He must 
confess that gravity must be overcome somewhere be- 
tween matter and a re-formation of matter. But what 
holds it and reapplies it in this new creation called 
growth, he is unable to know. Even as Solomon said 
anciently, man does not yet know, ^'how the bones do 
grow." 

It seems that science is edging up to the idea of the 
materialization and immaterialization of matter. Only 



8o MiATTER, man; AND SPIRIT. 

the atom is in the way, or else there would be an ac- 
knowledgment that matter may be resolved into its 
principle. What that principle is or would be is not 
and cannot be a concern until after its acknowledg- 
ment. It is not likely that anything can or will be 
thought upon seriously until its existence is allowed. 
If it be allowed that atoms of some pecuHar kind and 
fineness exist in the principle of matter, who knows 
but that it would take as many such to make one of 
man^s globe atoms of conception as there are atoms 
of his conception in all the earth? Growth comes by 
mutation of matter. But the difference between present 
science and that science that may be is this: Present 
science w^ould resolve matter into its conceivable ele- 
ments and apply them; whereas it may be discovered, 
or at least acknowledged, that matter is resolved into 
its principle and then applied. In either case there is 
mutation that apparently introduces a new creation. 
The ground of debate would be conducted on the basis 
of atomic magnitudes. Of course all sizes are mere 
conceptions. All inferences may be drawn alike from 
all conceivable magnitudes. But anyway, in order that 
there may be growth there must be a resolution of mat- 
ter, either according to present science into elemen- 
tary atoms or else into the principle of matter, which 
may not be matter at all, before there can be growth. 
Growth is a work very much like a new creation, 
and heartily implies not only present existence of mat- 
ter but also the present existence of its principle. So 
far as new forms of kindred relation are concerned, 
the creation is still progressing, 



CHAPTER II. 

Man the Only Intermediary Being Connecting 

Spirit and Matter, or the Physical and 

Metaphysical. 

Man, being material and immaterial, body and 
mind, or body and spirit, holds by his intelligence and 
moral character the fitting place of all generated be- 
ings between the material and the spiritual, and for ob- 
serving the phenomena of both physical and metaphys- 
ical things. He is the intelligent middle ground that 
looks upon and contemplates both the seen and unseen. 
No one can be conceived that occupies a better rela- 
tion for these purposes, for he is the only thinking be- 
ing of the earth, the only progressive, the only respon- 
sible, and has been of this character from the earliest 
knowledge of his race. Yet, however curious to relate, 
he is both seen and unseen to himself. The seen and 
unseen are in his perplexing consistence and seem nec- 
essary in order to be the being that he is. It does not 
require a scientist or a philosopher to tell the world 
that a withdrawal of the intelligent life principle leaves 
nothing for contemplation except the useless and dis- 
integrating body. Yet this piece of clay was once 
called a man. But this picture, like all else that belong 
to such a being, must, at least for the present, be put 
aside for after consideration. 

Man while dwelling in the flesh is the intelligent 

and proper link between the two ways of looking upon 

and investigating the material and invisible worlds. 

The consistence of his being forbids any other conclu- 

6 (8i) 



82 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

sion, for he is both matter and spirit joined together 
and is inteUigent — that is, he has mind, which can 
hardly be accounted for except on the ground of a 
spirit life within him. Yet man is so made that his eyes 
and all his senses turn naturally and directly toward 
the material world. This puts him, confessedly, at a 
disadvantage in his investigation of invisible things, 
even of those whose existence he is forced to acknowl- 
edge. The existence of matter, its continual presenta- 
tion to his thought, and the way the senses are natu- 
rally turned toward it, ha^ ever made it an object of 
prime consideration, but have Hkewise brought embar- 
rassment and given man a load to carry in his attempts 
for deeper research. The phenomena matter presents 
speaks to man in open face and, so far as it is con- 
cerned, in no uncertain way. It is a thoughtless thing 
because it is helpless. The trouble in human thinking 
is that the voice of something else is too much taken as 
a voice from matter. 

Thinking through matter, since all the natural senses 
turn directly toward it, is the customary way of getting 
knowledge and of establishing physical science. It is 
not deceitful; it cannot be. But since perfect or pure 
mind in the man being is put to the necessity of look- 
ing through material sense, deceptions may occur be- 
cause of this obstruction and certain hardness of un- 
derstanding. It is looking at things through an em- 
barrassing veil. A multitude of things are not as they 
appear; and man, by constant looking and ever cor- 
recting himself, is gradually getting undeceived — that 
is, as a progressive being he is reaching out to his 
heirship, making his man being as nearly spirit in 
knowledge as possible. 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 83 

Man looks on material things through his physical 
body; he sees, hears, and touches. If this were all, it 
would simply be a sense perception in common and 
not above that of other animals. But when he is 
brought to consider that he thinks over the things 
which he sees, hears, and touches, he is forced to ac- 
knowledge that there is a great mystery within him. 
He thinks and wonders over the consciousness or 
knowledge that he does think. He also feels the weight 
of cares and a responsibility strangely in contrast with 
all other earthly creatures. Hence the question arises : 
Who is really the man, the principle that thinks or the 
corporeal frame with animal life? In his thinking is 
there not a thought anterior, however much there may 
be of uncertainty and unconsciousness of its time exist- 
ence; a thought before the thinking man connects 
himself with the external world through the natural 
channels of sense? Another question naturally rises: 
Could not that principle or spirit live and think without 
being clothed in a material body ? And again : May it 
not be that the consciousness and knowledge of the 
man-being in the body are not altogether the same as 
the consciousness and knowledge of the man being out 
of the body? Or may it not be, since man has con- 
nection with the physical worlds through a material 
sense perception, that he has first an uncontaminated, 
pure spirit-consciousness unrecognized by the natural 
man and afterwards the recognized man-consciousness ? 

May it not be well to consider the relation the think- 
ing principle in man sustains to the body by which it 
gets its connection through the body with the external 
world ? A right understanding here would tend to bring 
variant science and philosophy more nearly in harmony. 



84 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

The mere frame of a body with life and blood circula- 
tion would give connection, but not an intelligent, 
thinking connection. 

There is reason for beUeving that the grossness 
of matter is too severe for pure spirit to behold. Hence 
in making man there intrudes a veil or medium that 
softens the stroke which the abruptness of matter 
would give; nor is even man permitted to look upon 
matter absolutely, but simply to see it through a ma- 
terial veil as an obstruction to true vision. To re- 
verse this thought, if human eyes, without training 
or previous preparation, were turned into the spirit 
world, it might produce blindness or even greater ca- 
lamity by its very severity. Hence the intelligent spir- 
it or soul in man, which is more and other than mere 
animal life, is provided with material channels that sof- 
ten the spirit's connection with matter. Man, there- 
fore, of all beings, as is probable, has the greatest op- 
portunity for getting a knowledge of matter, for his 
intelligent spirit in this beautiful way has connection 
with it. Yet after all the natural senses of man do not 
think, nor the nerves, nor the brain. They are only 
means of connecting the thinking man with the exter- 
nal world by which the mind may consider and judge 
material phenomena. Brain, nerve, and sense exercise 
is mainly produced by the anxiety and struggle of the 
intelligent spirit to take advantage of its opportunity 
for knowledge and the consequent pleasure and en- 
joyment. 

But what is that thinking principle, that mind, that 
spirit, that life, that something which apparently im- 
parts its own fashion and attributes to the body of 
man, and deceptively creates the belief that the material 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 85 

man does the thinking ? What is that unseen, intangi- 
ble principle that must be really the man himself ; that 
principle which is the seat of intelligence, that thinks, 
wills, has power, controls and subjects the body to its 
own decisions; that principle that has life and reason, 
and without which the body is no more than organized 
animal life or as unspeaking clay? 

Man has ever been slow and cautious in this direction, 
and has always been dissatisfied with his progress. 
Whenever he has set himself to the task of searching 
out the intelligent, living principle in himself, he has 
been too prone to contaminate it with matter or with 
mere animal life, and in its relation attach to these an 
undue significance and importance. He has been too 
much disposed to believe that there exists no life ex- 
cept the mere animal, whereas he knows that there is 
unintelligent life. Spirit life has a mind quality, 
whereas a life without such quality is not spirit life. 
Man seems to be in possession of both kinds of life. 
The animal life is necessary to him as a creature of 
earth clothed in matter, and the spirit life to make him 
a creature of mind and responsibility. 

The senses of man's body, naturally turning outward 
upon material obstructions to his vision, cannot easily 
be reversed and trained upon immaterial things and 
view them as with natural sense. They are to be looked 
upon, the rather, with spirit or mind perception, or 
with that perception as distinct as possible and as free 
as possible from any intervening obstruction such as 
the natural senses give. If this were altogether possible, 
it would be pure metaphysical spirit or mind looking 
upon the pure metaphysical world. But a man is so 
constituted that he can and does look upon everything 



86 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

better than he can upon himself and things like him- 
self — that is, not on his physical, but upon his meta- 
physical being, which is the real ego. From ancient 
times the importance of this self-knowledge has been 
recognized, and man all along in the enlightened and 
progressive ages has been exhorted to look upon and 
into himself. He can look upon his body, his blood, 
his nerves, and his brain ; but if he indulges the thought 
that he is looking upon himself, he makes a mistake. 
His real self — spirit, mind, and will — while they 
are deeply intangible, are, nevertheless, the man being. 
There is great difficulty and embarrassment even in 
an intelligent being to examine himself and to know 
what he really is. He can look upon the physical things 
which are associated with himself and which draw the 
thought very nearly to himself; but these are unsatis- 
fying and but drive him to harder work. In his effort 
to search out himself, he soon discovers that he cannot 
deny his life, his being, his mind, his thinking, his 
will, his consciousness. These exist as certainly as 
his body, and they are the most certain realities in the 
human constitution. A man thinks, and as he thinks 
he is made to know that he has life, mind, and con- 
sciousness. The organism of clay, or the human body, 
in comparison with this living, thinking principle, is 
like a dead engine. It has no power within itself to 
move. With all its artistic arrangement, the body, 
considered within itself, is powerless and dead. It is 
as a clock that stands still until a force gets In it and 
sets It going, or as any other thing made for service. 
As a thing of utility it must be used rather than using 
Itself. An Indwelling life, Intelligence, and will are 
concerned In its existence, and it is subject to these 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. B7 

until it is worn out or in some way becomes an unfit 
habitation and is then abandoned. 

But because a piece of machinery, either simple or 
complex, is worn out or so damaged that it becomes 
useless, gives no proof that the engineer and his force 
go with it to inutility and destruction. What, then, of 
man's spirit, mind, and will after the damaged and 
worn-out body is abandoned, and when the unthinking, 
irresponsible animal life becomes extinct and has gone 
with the body? What of this thinking principle that 
can belong to no other realm than spirit ? Is it destruc- 
tible or indestructible ? Does it yet survive ? Shall or 
can this thinking principle that thinks for itself, and 
also thinks through man's material body, perish because 
the body is no longer of service to it? Do the think- 
ing principle and the body perish together ? Which de- 
pends on the other for its intelHgence and perpetuity? 
Or is it a mutual dependence? If the thinking princi- 
ple is one thing and the body another, why do they 
separate after having once become united? Which 
possesses this judgment and wills it? Or is there any 
will concern about it ? These are questions that neither 
scientist nor philospher should slightingly skip over. 

The body is helpless within itself, has no choice, 
originates no action of the life nor motion of itself. In 
its subordination to the intelligent life that dwells in 
it, there can be no other than the condition of life and 
the will give it. When the office of the great Higher 
One is not taken into the account, it must be conceded 
that the motor power is most concerned, it being the 
active principle and intelligence. Therefore the sepa- 
ration is at its discretion ; for only it can will, act, and 
exercise choice. With it rests the whole responsibility 



88 MATTER, man; AND SPIRIT 



, -*-'■*') 



of a separation. When the body, through age or 
through damage of any kind, loses its capacity to re- 
ceive repairs and to give the thinking principle con- 
nection with the external world of matter, it is death, a 
necessary abandonment because of its inutility. It has 
passed to the impossible state, and there is no longer a 
hand in it that can make repairs. It is the death of the 
body and the animal life in man. As to the spirit, or 
the living, immortal principle, it had as well be any- 
where else as about the old, abandoned body. 

Man and all living organisms die. But it must be 
remembered that man is the only thinking creature, 
the only one endowed with mind, the only progressive 
and responsible being. He is the only one that can do 
homage, pay vows, appreciate a moral obligation, look 
upon the material universe and count the stars, meas- 
ure and think of their magnitudes ; the only one that 
can think upon metaphysical things and strive to search 
into their mystery ; the only creature that can advance 
science and improve his- condition. But it is needless 
to put in a catalogue all that contradistinguishes man 
from every other living organism. He is a class all to 
himself. There is in him an endowment and nobility 
of quality and character that can belong to nothing 
else material. To give this endowment to anything 
else is but to make it man. It could be nothing else. 
Whatever has not this nobility is not man, nor can be 
made man. There is no alternative in the matter. 
Hence man is the only earthly creature that is entitled 
to something extraordinary because of his extraordi- 
nary endowment. 

The intelligent life in man is so different from the in- 
stinctive and unimproving life of all else that the thought 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 89 

of worthiness and unworthiness springs itself. It is a 
question of the future ''survival of the fittest/' Nor 
does it seem harsh if, in the economy of nature, or of 
Him who rules over all, the unfit or mere animal 
life perishes with the body in both man and beast. It 
is of the earth, given for the body, and must perish 
with the body. In the mere animal life there is no 
thought of the future, and it therefore must be lim- 
ited and encompassed with the present existence. It 
seems almost a certain conclusion that the unintelli- 
gent, irresponsible hfe of animals, as with the vegetable 
kingdom, is temporary and perishes alike with their 
bodies. 

But while the body of man goes to clay, and his ig- 
noble animal life likewise perishes, what can be said of 
his spirit, that high endowment of his, that responsible, 
thinking, and intelligent principle? Does it still live? 
Is it not intelligent ? Then must it not be spirit ? Does 
not mind imply spirit? Does it still think? If it lived 
and thought while embarrassed with a material body, 
and was the mind, will, and noblest motor power of 
that body, is it at all unreasonable that it lives and 
thinks much better when released from its confinement 
and prison ? 

A man's habit and power of thinking while in the 
body and through the body seems to have a conscious- 
ness and memory peculiar and limited to his material 
state. This is a certain, but not the only, man state. It 
is the state with which man is now concerned, his first 
or beginning state, and all his memory and conscious- 
ness are likewise confined. Pure mind spirit, or that 
which may be conceived In authority over the body and 
over the animal life of man, seems to have memory and 



90 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

consciousness peculiar to its state. When joined to- 
gether, the person of man is different, even as his state 
is different. Man in the body knows nothing of com- 
passion and sympathy for spirit. He feels sympathy 
and compassion only for his kind or for things that live 
in the flesh. As long as it has been taught that spirit 
existences live and are in punishment without hope, 
though a man believe it, yet from the days of Adam 
not a ray of compassion has gone out toward them 
from man. In his present state he is not in the least 
troubled over the condition of beings of that class. Nor 
does the world think much, nor is it troubled much, 
about the condition of departed spirits. The mind 
easily dismisses the whole matter. 

Mind spirit that has once had a material body may 
have a compassion, consciousness, memory, and knowl- 
edge peculiar to such a state of man ; yet it may con- 
tain much or all that belonged to man in his material 
state. Experiences are of use. They are educational. 
Every epoch in an intelligent existence that does not de- 
velop an abnormal condition means improvement, more 
intelligence, more sympathy and compassion, a better, 
nobler, and more useful creature. 

Speaking after the order of the earth, man in the 
death of his body has no longer man memory and man 
consciousness, for his material state or epoch is closed. 
He has no man consciousness of his continued existence. 
With the close of his material state, seemingly, the 
whole man was blotted out of existence. But this is an 
appearance, a deceit, and is founded in the fact that 
consciousness in the material state of man is confined 
to that epoch of his history. He is no longer thinking 
through a material body by which he had his man con- 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 9 1 

sciousness, and therefore his material chapter is closed. 
That which remains is pure soul or spirit consciousness, 
and doubtless retains the knowledge that was gained 
through its state of materialization. 

It is proper in this connection to refer to science and 
opinions held and taught. For while the thinking man 
is in a material body, signs are given along the channels 
and ways that connect the mind with the world of mat- 
ter which do show the activity of the mind, producing 
effects and doing wonders in the physical man. Hence 
in a scientific way much is said about molecular action 
and about motor and sensor nerves, or the carrying out 
and the bringing processes of the vision. As to these, 
their place and action, nothing is denied. But because 
of their action is it known that the inferences and con- 
clusions are all correct? May it not be that there has 
been too much haste in reaching conclusions? May it 
not be that the pride of discovery, before the heat 
abated, has led to improper classification and applica- 
tion ? For instance, can it be possible that a tree or any 
other object standing out in front can shake the human 
body or even one molecule of it ? How can anything le- 
gitimately stir the body, the nerves, or the molecules of 
them except the life that animates and has full control 
of the body and all its parts ? Does it not seem that the 
molecular action excited in nerve and brain in the life 
and mind connection with matter is the result of life 
and mind action, and not the effect of outer objects? 
May not the unsubstantial image on the retina be mere- 
ly incidental to the eye's peculiar formation? An ob- 
ject intervenes in the line of life's vision. It intervenes 
as an obstruction in the light, for the light is really the 
thing which the life sees. The instant it intervenes the 



92 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

material channel of vision becomes excited, and some- 
times the whole body is agitated in its haste to impart 
it to man's consciousness. To speak more clearly, 
which produces the molecular action and even some- 
times shakes the whole body when obstructions to vi- 
sions intrude, is it the influence of the object or of the 
mind? In answer to this question, the thought will 
cling to the life power within the body which fully 
and wholly possesses it. The answer therefore is that 
the influence comes from the same source that enables 
a man to point the finger or raise the arm. Uncon- 
sciousness of the exercise of the mind and will gives no 
proof to the contrary. The truth of nature should be 
seen and accepted and the long-continued plague of 
materialism should be put aside. 

The seeing and thinking man digs no tunnels in his 
material organism, bridges no rivers, scales no 
barriers to find connection with the material world. 
His material body of connection is provided with the 
avenues all open. In or-der for proper connection, the 
way must be clear even as nature has provided ; a good 
eye, a good ear, a sound nervous system, and a well- 
formed brain to connect the thinking man in great 
strength with the world of matter. The body is the 
medium of the spirit's connection with all coarse and 
harsh existence. This thought is as old as Socrates. 

Since education, in common expression, is only an 
apparent manifestation of thought and knowledge to 
the physical man, which in truth the real or thinking 
man already possesses, the importance of perfect brain, 
nerve, and sense structure must be acknowledged. 
According to their perfection is the connection with the 
external world made, and in the degree of their perfec- 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 93 

tion is a consciousness awakened and knowledge 
gained. Whatever the thinking man is or can be in 
knowledge, he is so conditioned and compounded with 
matter that as a man of the earth he cannot in knowl- 
edge transcend the plane of his sense, nerve, and brain 
structure. They both seem to run. evenly together. 

A man cannot leap to the moon, nor does he ever 
think of trying to do a thing so impossible; yet the 
thinking man, or his thought, is there in a twinkling 
and exploring. It is called a thought, but who knows 
what it is or what eyes accompany it? It does not 
originate as thought in the ox when thirsting for 
water, for that is earthly, it is animal ; but man, having 
in him a component more than of an earthly nature, 
thirsts for knowledge. Who knows or can know all 
that is in the spirit mind of man ? It can be measured 
now only by its operation through a material body. 
Is not man in his physical embarrassment striving to be 
all that spirit is when uncontaminated with matter? 
Is there not evidence in him that he feels weakened by 
his body of matter? He is "made a little lower than 
the angels/' What the mind spirit is or can be in a 
disembodied state is too metaphysical for man to con- 
template while clothed in a material body. Thought is 
very strange and incomprehensible to the human un- 
derstanding. The leaps it makes, the breadths it spans, 
and the distances to which it takes its flights almost 
take man's breath out of him. 

Matter, or the human body, is certainly an impedi- 
ment in the way of the spirit mind. But as it was nec- 
essary that man should appear, there was no alterna- 
tive but that he should appear weakened by a material 
body. Yet, although confined and shorn of strength, 



94 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

it is the only way that spirit seems to have any con- 
nection with the physical universe. It is in this way 
the spirit mind gains a knowledge of matter and the liv- 
ing organisms made of it. It is on the ground of this 
well-founded weakness in man that he is so often 
forced, while in the midst of the outlying truths of 
the universe, to confess his ignorance. With him few 
things are axiomatic. Alas ! how few ! Why does he 
not see more truth? Is it not the cloud of his materi- 
ality in the way of his spirit mind ? There seems to be 
no other conceivable way of interpretation. Hence 
doubts arise and theories are spun about a great mul- 
titude of things. Really there is little that is positive- 
ly known by man in comparison with that which is un- 
known and doubtful. Yet there is truth everywhere, 
but most of it is not easily discerned by man. Hence 
man is so constituted that he is compelled to be a crea- 
ture of belief more than of knowledge. 

Man is capable only in the degree he understands. 
But his understanding may be increased and his capa- 
bility in the same degree. This is done by purifying 
and perfecting the avenues by which the mind makes 
connection through the body with the physical world. 
Herein, it is believed, is the hope of science, to see 
more clearly, and to have the material frame as little in 
the way as possible. Hence the aptness and truthful- 
ness of the old saying, "A sound mind in a sound 
body." This, however, may be paraphrased thus: 
A pure and perfect brain, nerve, and sense structure 
for a strong and understanding mind; for the purer 
these are the less the matter of the body is in the way 
of mind perception. Hence Is seen the importance of 
physical culture and the stress laid upon it. Yet phys- 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 95 

ical culture does not consist alone in gymnastic and foot- 
ball exercise, and the whole catalogue of such games 
as are common with the schools of the present day. It 
must recognize self-denial; no excess in modes of 
living, no excess in appetite and passion. For excess 
stupefies, renders impure, and weakens the mind's con- 
nection with the external world through the body. It 
does not depend so much on how much a man can lift, 
how fast he can run, how hard he can strike, how far 
he can leap, as upon a free and perfect way to exercise 
the mind through the body upon the material and ob- 
structing world. 

But coming back to the true position, let it be again 
stated that man is the only known intelligent link of 
connection between the material and the immaterial, 
between the life with mind and that coarse stuff called 
matter. It should also be remembered that a distinc- 
tion has been made between pure mind and man mind, 
or between spirit sense and knowledge and man sense 
and knowledge, and that each may have its respective 
consciousness, but that the spirit knowledge and con- 
sciousness includes the man's, and is therefore the su- 
perior. Man, being joined with this spirit of higher 
perception, and yet compelled to seek his knowledge 
through a material body which gives his spirit connec- 
tion with matter, feels his embarrassment. Hence his 
longing desire and ambition to be more than seems 
possible ; for, having associated with him an intelligent 
spirit, not fully apprehended, however, the culmina- 
tion of his satisfaction cannot be completed until he 
becomes all that it is in sense perception, knowledge, 
and power. Yet It may be apprehended that the very 
spirit itself, by its association with matter, will have 



96 M'ATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

made unto itself a higher attainment by passing^ 
through such an epoch, for there is strong probabil- 
ity that spirit cannot have such consciousness of mat- 
ter and its phenomena except as it is given a prepared 
body or medium for its discernment. Should this be 
really true, which seems probable, the disembodied man 
will be very great in his attainment in the scale of in- 
telligent existences. If spirit and mind by existence 
have intelligence, their opportunity has been increased 
by connection with matter. 

All living organisms, whether material or imma- 
terial, possess qualities peculiar to their respective 
classes. The material organisms of the earth seem 
to possess no qualities above the earth except in one in- 
stance — that is, man. Their habits, manners, and what- 
ever thought they have are not above the earth. None 
of them show qualities that would place them on a 
higher plane. The life in them, whatever it is, shows 
no quality above the earth. But spirit, which may be 
regarded as a living organism of some kind, has qual- 
ities above the earth. It has the quality of mind. 
It is not known that mind can exist without spirit. 
Mind, except in connection with a living spirit, is un- 
thinkable. There can be no intelligence without life, 
although there may be life without intelligence, even 
as the lower creations of the earth do show. 

The intelligent spirit is the living entity in man that 
is, or ought to be, supreme and above his earthly or 
animal Hfe. Mind is the great quality of that spirit, 
and through this quality the dignity of the spirit be- 
comes known. Mere spirit, if such could be without 
mind, would be incapable of reason or judgment. In 
such a condition all law would be needless. There 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 97 

would be no understanding, no obedience, no appreci- 
ation of obligation. Consciousness is a mere motion or 
feeling in man of the existence of things. In a moral 
sense it leads to the judgment that renders the deci- 
sion of approval or disapproval. It occupies a place 
midway between a man's conduct and his mind. With- 
out law, without a knowledge of law, without ideas of 
the Tightness and the wrongness of things, there could 
be no consciousness of right and wrong and no feel- 
ing of approbation or disapprobation. But these be- 
long to man, and they hold him a distinct class from 
all that is of the earth. He is of this class because, 
above natural or animal life, he has a spirit within 
him, and spirit implies mind, and mind implies under- 
standing, law, and obedience. 

Material science is very bold. It Is almost disposed 
to claim that, inasmuch as molecular action produces 
heat, it likewise is capable of producing Ufe that 
may ultimately be evolved into a thinking man. It is 
right to allow to molecular action all of which it is 
capable, but it is equally right to limit it to actual dis- 
coveries made, or at least that the conclusions do not 
overstep reasonable inferences. Molecular action, 
friction, or any mode of force that would destroy the 
structure of material things, is known of all to be a 
process by which heat appears. This is all that is 
really known about it. Heat is still a hidden agent, 
takes wings and flies ofif into the speculations of the 
corpuscular and wave theories. This is the way many 
things in science find their graves ; nevertheless all 
discovery and all truth is good. But whether heat is 
a substance or a mere efifect or expression out 
of substance is unknown. All knowledge of heat and 
7 



98 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

light is hypothecated on the existence and nature of 
interstellar ether. 

But the question is not what produces or displays 
heat, but what produced the molecular action. Nor at 
this place is there any concern about the molecular ac- 
tion and the resulting heat in dead matter, but in the en- 
livened. Scientists say that the molecules of the nerves 
and brain get in motion, and hence sense perception 
and thought. This is a parallelism of the production 
of heat — that is to say, molecular action and sensible 
heat as a result ; and again, molecular action and sense 
perception, thought, and reason as a result. This is 
materialism in its naked theory. Now it is not denied 
that the nerves and brain get in such motion, but it is 
denied that the motion is necessary for the spirit's vi- 
sion ; or at least, if necessary, the motion is caused by 
the force within and not from the object without; 
that it is the struggle of the life within to connect itself 
through the body with the external world of matter 
or with anything that requires a material body for the 
mind's perception. The body is artistically arranged 
to see through, to hear through, and to feel through. 
So far as pure mind' is concerned, in order to its vision, 
it needs no more to wake the molecules of the nerves 
than the common observer needs to put in motion the 
molecules that compose the lenses of his field glass. 
There is reason for believing, when philosophically 
sought, that much of that which has been written and 
taught about the uses and duties of the motor and sen- 
sor nerves in their carrying out and bringing in proc- 
esses is not of correct conception. It is degrading man 
to too low a plane, too much like placing his artistic 
frame on the same level with dead organic matter. 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. 99 

Allowing that there is molecular action in the nerves 
and brain, the question may be asked : How is this action 
produced and what is it for? Some have conceived 
that it requires time, and have even calculated the time 
it requires to convey through the nerves to the brain 
an injury of the body, and therefore a little more time 
to wake up the life's consciousness. But no one has 
ever made known, other than in theory, the difference in 
time in reporting an injury to the hand and foot. 
Really man is not long enough, nor the nerves, with all 
their ramifications, to show a difference. Whenever 
the earth produces a man a hundred feet long he will 
be a good subject on whom to try experiments of this 
kind and to tabulate the calculations. Till then the 
question will probably be at rest except in theory. 

The spirit mind sees and knows instantly and con- 
stantly, and in this pure perception has its own peculiar 
consciousness ; and it is doubtful whether darkness or 
sunlight has anything to do with its seeing any more 
than with its hearing. The question here is the man 
consciousness, the consciousness of the being who is 
joined with matter and without which there would be 
no man. Natural light is necessary to man, but not to 
pure spirit, except as it becomes joined with matter to 
constitute the man of the earth and thereby give into 
that spirit additional knowledge — that of matter. 

The body, like every other obstruction of matter, is 
to be lifted, carried, placed, and protected, but with 
this dift'erence : The life within controls the body im- 
mediately and directly, but other bodies of matter 
through the use of the material personality. As dan- 
ger comes toward the eye it is warded against by a 
voluntary closing of the eyelids. The life sees the dan- 

LofC. 



lOO MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

ger and seeks protection, but sometimes fails in pro- 
tection. This may be either because the Hfe does not 
see the danger at all or because the danger is too im- 
mediate for the life to impart action to the body. The 
coming dangerous object must be seen, or else how 
can the life prepare for a defense of its material body? 
The coming dangerous object could not affect the 
body, except as the life in its instinctive or intelligent 
character first sees it and prepares a defense by stirring 
a molecular action, or any other necessary action that 
leads to a closing of the eyelids. 

In this instance of the eye there is as likely to be 
created a molecular action as in any other condition. 
Yet it must be created by the life and for the purpose 
of protection. Is it at all unreasonable, then, that mo- 
lecular motions are produced in the body for purposes 
other than of seeing, hearing, and touching, and that it 
is too strained to believe that in any instance they are 
produced by the influence of the outer object; that the 
influence does not travel from without to within on a 
road of nerves in order to produce sensation and 
knowledge in spirit mind, because the spirit sees, the 
body being arranged for that purpose ? But that which 
the life or spirit sees and of which it has immediate 
consciousness, it gives to the man consciousness, and 
in order to this it stirs any necessary action in the 
body. Or may it not be assumed, since the body is an 
organism framed for the life to see the external world 
of matter, that the Hfe with mere instinct or with 
mind must first be consciously impressed with what 
it directly and unavoidably sees, and that it only stirs 
the molecular action and sometimes a shaking of the 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. lOI 

whole body? Does not the hfe have control over the 
body generally and particularly ? 

It should ever be borne in mind that the artistic 
human frame is the lens connecting the invisible, intel- 
ligent principle in man with the material world, and 
that this is the highest reason for having an intelligent 
spirit clothed with matter. There is brought about a 
complete, though imperfect, relation between the intel- 
ligent, invisible spirit and matter by the intervention 
of the human body. The lens is complete so far as the 
contactual relation is concerned, and the animal sees, 
hears, and touches without a motion of the body, with- 
out a motion of an organ of it, without a motion of a 
molecule of it except as the mind stirs the influence. 
The molecular motion, which is so much insisted on by 
material science, and which is not at all denied, is not 
necessary to the consciousness of the pure spirit in 
man, seeing that it has the body as its own contactual 
lens with matter, but the rather to impart consciousness 
to man in his character of a compound being. 

Allowing that the spirit mind exists, that it is invis- 
ible, immaterial, and therefore not dependent on mat- 
ter, to say that it cannot have a thought and conscious- 
ness only as it is shaken up by material molecular action 
is absurd. It is the body that has to be waked up and 
moved upon by the life or spirit mind to stir the human 
consciousness. The mind observes motions from the 
least to the greatest, and may have thoughts concerning 
the motions it observes, but in the body which it occu- 
pies and controls it is master and is dependent on it for 
nothing. But that dual being called man is largely de- 
pendent on the work the spirit does through matter 
for his knowledge. 



102 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

In further illustration that man is the connecting 
link between the intelUgent, spiritual, and the material 
there is something to be obtained through a careful ex- 
amination of his face. Things are written on the face 
more than color, beauty, smoothness, harshness, de- 
light, joy, hate, anger, and a hundred other shades and 
changes of common observation. Human faces change 
as circumstances influence and control, and they are a 
fair index of the mental state each hour. These, how- 
ever, under a will force may play around more or less 
deceitfully. But there is a sign written on the faces of 
men that in itself cannot play deceit. It may in a man- 
ner be covered and hidden, but it is never destroyed. 
This is the index that shows what a man is, not his 
character so much, but the principle from which a high 
character may be formed. 

Of course there are many kinds of human faces in 
the world, far more than are necessary; for human 
faces take a larger range of differentiation than any 
other animal that exists. Among the best improved 
and most intelligent races of men, right in the midst of 
the most improved political divisions, faces are met 
that compare almost unfavorably with the average of 
the most degraded tribes of men. Man's face can be 
improved or degraded not only in physical contour 
but also as to its index of reflections. Standing as the 
races do this day, reason points to a common origin ; 
but time, circumstances, and other things not well un- 
derstood have wrought the deviations In both faces 
and forms that now appear. It may be well believed 
that a change in condition, circumstances, and educa- 
tion, equalizing opportunities and advantages, would 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. I03 

work such improvement that the idea of a common 
origin could be more universally accepted. 

Human faces do not impress alike in those deep- 
written yet often half-covered lines that express the 
spiritual man being in contradistinction from all oth- 
er animals. As an index that man holds a place be- 
tween two worlds, the spiritual and material, he wears 
a sign on his face, although often much covered and 
hidden, that is not hard of discernment. The degrada- 
tion into which some tribes have sunk threaten its ob- 
literation, yet in the most untutored and darkest re- 
gions of human existence there are always found more 
or less faces that wear the sign and tell in hard accen- 
tuation the high origin of man. 

But it was not particularly the intention to refer to 
the physical contour and aspects that the different 
faces of men present, but to the combined material, 
mental, and spiritual reflections they impose upon the 
thought. Some faces reflect scarcely more than ma- 
teriality with life, others strongly mento-materialistic, 
others almost purely mental, while others are well 
marked spiritually, which str.ongly indicates another 
being besides the material body, that man's place is a 
position between two worlds, the invisible and the vis- 
ible. Because man is flesh and cannot look into the in- 
visible only in a reflective sense, is no disproof of the 
connecting relation he holds. He is so constituted 
that the mind which has come into him holds the index 
finger pointing toward the material world. He can 
only. realize that he is a being dwelling in a borderland 
not body alone, nor mind alone, but spirit and matter 
conjoined, giving him his border land place that he 



104 MATTER, MAF AND SPIRIT. 

might be the connectir link betVN^een two worlds, mat- 
ter and mind or matter and spirit. 

For a moment compare facial reflections of other ani- 
mals with man, and behold the contrast. It is unfair 
and out of reason to compare the worst of one with the 
best of the other, which has grown to be a sort of habit 
in making distinctions. It is proper and reasonable to 
compare the best of one with the best of the other, or 
the average of the one wath the average of the other. 
Do this in any fair way, and the gap will show wide. 
The facial reflections of the one are animal, with only 
animal intelligence. The reflections of the other are 
not only animal with animal intelMgence, but an intel- 
lectuality, spirit, and mind. 

Hence it may be concluded tKat to deny spirit in 
man would be Sadducean. Such an argument pursued 
to final results would lead to a denial of both angel 
and spirit, and even of God himself. It would lead to 
a complete acknowledgment of materialistic philos- 
ophy, that matter produces force, force molecular ac- 
tion, and molecular action heat, light, life, mind, will, 
and reason. But if it be granted that limited or created 
spirit exists, is it at all unreasonable, since an epoch of 
matter was introduced in the universe, that spirit, which 
may have already existed, was for a purpose conjoined 
with matter ? In this there is seen the beauty not only 
of life joined in matter but also spirit with intelligence 
and understanding. Hence why should there be skep- 
ticism about the olden history which says : ''God made 
man," made him as any other animal, but breathed 
into him a never-dying spirit with mind. The expres- 
sion is, man became ''a living soul'' — that is, undying, 



tHE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. I05 

immortal. Is it not more reasonable to conceive this to 
be the spirit rather than anything else ? 

Assuming that man is pulling himself out of calam- 
it}^ rather than evolving out of low origin, and ac- 
knowledging that there would be a likeness in his ris- 
ing improvement whether either be true, he was nev- 
ertheless in the beginning of his existence classified 
above all other material creation, and holds that place 
unto this day. He was made of such distinction that it 
is forever impossible to turn him into a monkey, and 
of such distinction that it is impossible to turn a mon- 
key into a man. Man received something in his origin 
that so markedly differentiates him from every other 
earthly creature that he always has been, and is now, 
a class all to himself. Such is his history. He must 
have within him spirit. There is nothing else conceiv- 
able. 

Man is so contradistinguished from all other crea- 
tures, and has an endowment that renders the changes 
some imagine altogether impossible. No one, now or 
ever, has seen such a process going on, either of turn- 
ing men into monkeys or monkeys into men. The ar- 
gument had as well be ended, for such a process is 
impossible. Among the lower grades of men, where 
monkeys and men have dwelt together for a thousand 
years, there do not exist even a legendary tale of such 
hisus naturae, gradual or otherwise. The thought of 
it does not belong to the territory where such sports 
should be played, but to the camp of the highly civ- 
ilized, educated, and enlightened; to that territory 
where there is great strength of mind, but an imagi- 
nation that has always kept equal pace with it. 

What God breathed into the animal man, a never- 



lo6 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

dying life with mind which may be called spirit, he has 
given or breathed into each of Adam's sons and daugh- 
ters. It is just as reasonable to beheve that creation is 
still going on as that it began. The first man appeared 
not only as an animal among animals but also in the 
intelligence of spirit life, immortal. Reason shows 
how man as an animal can increase his kind and be 
fitted as an animal for only earthly existence; can 
show why such limited responsibility was intrusted to 
man, but is at a loss to find why man should be clothed 
with that greater power and responsibility by placing, 
along with his natural increase, an immortality, a spirit 
mind, and made responsible. Spirit mind is certainly 
something not begotten, but given in the process of a 
continued creation. Man's nature and responsibility 
in the multiplication of his kind run parallel with the 
other animals of the earth. In this respect he is a lim- 
ited being and cannot rise above the level of the other 
animals. Yet he was commanded to multiply his kind, 
and no argument concerning the purity of creation can 
shut off or hedge the animal nature that is necessary to 
it. Because man, so to speak, has been allowed this 
partnership with the Almighty in making man on the 
earth is not a degradation of that great One. It is only 
one of his wise methods of continuing a creation which 
had a beginning. It also shows that man is the con- 
necting link between intelligent spirit and matter and 
between the immortal and the mortal. 

It seems to be a basic principle that whatever Is neces- 
sary to an earthly animal existence may be begotten, 
and that it is likewise perishable. So it may not be 
unwise to conclude that all the work of man in the pro- 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. I07 

man is in company with them. Yet if this were all, 
there would be no man on the earth. But since man 
thinks and possesses elements of bein^ so transcend- 
ently above all, there is something in himself not of his 
own making. It is the greatest power within him, his 
unseen, God-given part, the spirit mind, his immor- 
tality. It is something of such consequence that ani- 
mal instinct is driven to its minimum and made quite 
unnecessary. Something that really does not belong 
to matter, but has become associated with matter that 
such a being as man might appear in the universe, and 
that there mi^ht be made a connection between the 
powerful and the weak, between the visible and the in- 
visible. 

Such an expression in divine consultation as ''Let 
us make man/' was never spoken about a fruit-bearing 
tree, an ox, an eagle, or an elephant. These were all 
made unceremoniously, and from the lowest to the high- 
est they are graded only by degrees of difference. There 
is no connecting link lacking throughout the whole scale. 
Yet if there is an immortality, or anything of the kind 
deserving immortality anywhere in the whole list, no 
one has ever been able to name where it begins. If 
there is intelligent spirit or mind, no one knows where 
it begins. They are a class all to themselves, all only 
of the earth, and are creatures only for the earth. So 
far as history treats, they have never made improve- 
ment, nor have they retrograded. How unlike man ! 
It all shows that everything below man is altogether 
lacking in endowment or principle that he possesses. 
Their connected relationship is fixed, whether is con- 
sidered their physical structure, their life, or their 
modes of life. 



lo8 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Nor does it appear unreasonable, in the light and 
work of wisdom, that this should be the proper fashion 
of populating the earth when there is involved no 
higher consideration than creation of earth and things 
only of time. The theory of natural evolution con- 
ceives and recognizes such to be the course of nature — 
that is, under their own nomenclature, it is natural law. 
They make their argument from present existences 
back through the fossihferous. But all this amounts 
to little, for every epoch of the earth has had creation 
and held generations adapted to its weather. All 
know that present existences are here, and that the 
graveyard of the fossihferous contains the remains 
of that which was. Since a direct creation would run 
a course of the same naturalness, does it not appear 
that a direct creation is as probable as the theory ev- 
olution, and that a direct creation, meeting the epochs 
of the earth's weather; is the proper way of accounting 
for the things the natural evolutionist is at a loss to 
know. An acknowledgment that God not only be- 
gun but continued his creation with adaptation to the 
earth's changes would help to restore confidence in 
the writings of Moses when properly understood. 

But the above digression was not intended. Com- 
ing again more directly to the subject, it may be said 
that when man was created he differed from all the 
rest not in degree but in kind. He differed least 
from the rest in his physical frame. But even in this 
there is an impassable gulf which the naturalist has 
never bridged. It matters little whether it is ever 
bridged or not, for the main argument does not tend 
in this direction. The argument is concerning the 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. IO9 

Spiritual and material, embracing also the difference 
between animal and spiritual life — not the mere in- 
stinctive animation of matter as shown in the ox, the 
eagle, and the monkey; but the spiritual, intelhgent 
mind, animation of matter as shown in man, placing 
him in such distinction that he is able to appreciate 
the virtues of moral law — a distinction that causes him 
to strive for excellence ; that supplies him with ability 
to continually progress in understanding and knowl- 
edge; that gives him a superior consciousness which 
provokes the feeling of joy or pain, according to the 
rule of his conduct; a distinction that brings dis- 
satisfaction with any stage of his improvement, and 
still spurs him on to higher and nobler achievement. 

What is it that puts in motion the immobile body of 
man. First, it is life in the body as in any other an- 
imal. A life that instinctively desires comfort, ease, 
rest ; but a life, however, that will labor for sustenance, 
that will forego hardships to satisfy hunger, slake 
thirst, and quiet passion. This is a mere animal life, 
procreated, that lives and perishes with the body. It 
is a life that feels no concern only for this body, self- 
ish, covetous, revengeful; a life w^ithout qualities of 
nobility and therefore undeserving perpetuity. It is 
just such a Hfe as belongs to the lower order of ex- 
istences. But secondly, it is a life of better quality, a 
life of mind. It is a life of reason, and is able, though 
with great task, to curb, dominate, and subdue the ani- 
mal life, which is always impatient and has within itself 
no moral ideas and no smiting conscience. As a rule 
one or the other of these lives prevails in man. 

Again let it be asked, What is it that puts in motion 
the body of man? It is life merely animal in common 



no MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

with Other living beings, and a Hf e spiritual with mind. 
The former of these is not under law, nor can it be, 
for it has no quality by which it can understand the 
meaning of law. The latter is capable of being under 
law, induces the intelligent and nobler actions of life, 
and is amenable to some court. It is the worthy part 
of man, and while joined with the body has a separate- 
ness from the body more distinctly than the mere unin- 
telligent animal life. It may be perfect or imperfect, 
but in whatever state, since it is not begotten of man 
and is spiritual, it is immortal. - 

Both these lives are capable of giving motion to the 
body — the one a motion of merely animal ministration 
as shown in the beast ; the other with the effect of mind, 
thought, and reason with the power of choice, and 
with a moral consciousness that approves or disap- 
proves all motions made. It is this that properly con- 
nects the Immaterial and the material worlds, that 
gives man his transcendency above all perishable 
things, that gives him moral character, makes him 
amenable, makes him subject to judgment, and entitles 
him to immortality. 

Wrapped in his thought and contemplation of him- 
self, man looks into his being in wonder that rises into 
amazement; not into that curious structure, his won- 
derfully wrought frame, for this in comparison is 
insignificant; but he looks with great wonder upon 
that greater scene, the working of his spirit and mind. 
At one time he finds his thought placed upon the ma- 
terial, observing the order and rule under which ma- 
terial phenomena are presented ; but again he finds 
himself as though he were out of the body, gone out 
into the territory of the unseen exploring, and in holy 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. HI 

contemplation of the invisible. He knows that he 
thinks, and that his mind and thought, whatever the 
weakness and confinement of his body, and whatever 
the imperfections of his conclusions, are not limited ex- 
cept with the range of both material and immaterial 
things. It all bespeaks an inteUigent spirit life within 
him. 

Man knows there is no other creature on the earth 
endowed as himself. In his contemplation of himself 
he realizes that he is not all material nor all imma- 
terial, but a combination of the two. Yet, considering 
himself first as simply a material being, presenting him- 
self as such like other animals in life modes, it becomes 
no eas}^ task to break the barriers of his confinement 
and behold himself as he really is in spirit, mind, and 
thought. 

Man moves his foot, bows his head, raises an arm, 
points a finger at will. The lower animals make simi- 
lar motions. Yet in all mere animal existence there is 
a begotten or transferred force or life that cannot live 
without a material body, and therefore perishes with 
the body. There is reason for believing that such a life 
as this is in man along with the other animals of the 
earth. Such lives and bodies of man and beasts are of 
equal nobility. Their bodies are of matter and their 
lives unintelligent and selfish, and their thoughts not 
above their appetites and passions and their modes of 
an earthly existence. Such bodies and such Hves con- 
tain no argument showing a necessity for future ex- 
istence when once dissolved. The true argument for 
perpetuity is based on higher ground than any princi- 
ple which mere animals possess, even when man is 
placed in the same category. But it has already been 



112 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

noticed that man can raise an arm or point a finger 
with intelHgent and moral motive. This is his higher 
department of hfe, given him, not transferred, resfon- 
sible, immortal. The very thought that man in his ani- 
mal nature should have povv^er to propagate such an 
intelligent entity, with all the responsibility and ac- 
countability attached, is unreasonable. Verily, it is 
making man in creative skill equal to God. That is, 
God made one immortal man^ and man makes all the 
rest. It is unreasonable. What Adam begat were 
children in his own image, mortal beings. 

What is this that works in man, and yet creates no 
motion of the body? This thing that thinks, wills, 
and even plans destruction; that murders his fellow- 
man without opportunity to do the blood-flowing deed ? 
This thing that makes a man feel guilty in his secret 
thought when no human law apprehends, that makes 
him recognize that he has a case in court somewhere, 
and that if no human law can call him to justice be- 
cause he did not commit the overt act, yet nevertheless 
his crime remains in his thought with all its blood- 
guiltiness, and will forever remain until he is adjudged 
and suffers the penalty or, under some rich provision, 
obtains a pardon ? It is asked what is that inner think- 
ing, hating, planning, murdering man when the body 
has no connection, that abates or postpones the motion 
it would give the body on arrival of the prearranged 
opportunity? It must be the same spirit that makes 
the body repeat the existing act of its own conception 
and motion. 

What is this that lies outside of every motion and 
act of the material man, that acts for itself, and uses 
its own material body as a club in committing murder 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. II3 

or in doing any other unlawful thing? It must be a 
living principle with mind in the body but not of the 
body; and it must be corrupt, because it yields its 
greater strength and is dominated by the appetite and 
passion of an animal nature. So it may be conceived 
that the body is entirely dependent on the life and 
mind for its motion, but that the life and mind are de- 
pendent on the body only to give them connection with 
the material world. 

The acting entity mentioned is commonly called 
thought, and dismissed with but little further consid- 
eration. This is but a negligent way man has of ex- 
cusing himself from deeper research, and a cunning 
way of seeking palliation from his guilt. Thought 
cannot exist, nor can be conceived as existing, without 
allowing its producing entity. Nor can thought be any 
kind of entity within itself. Thought and the being that 
produces it have a very peculiar and indefinable relation- 
ship. In thinking of the moon, neither the thought nor 
anything in man, unless it be a spiritual vision, has es- 
caped and gone that distance. The man, his mind, and 
his thought are all confined together. They are all 
within the man. Hence thought, whether of distant 
or near objects, can be no more than a conception or 
idea impressed upon the consciousness through some 
kind of sense perception. Therefore when a mian 
thinks, plans, and arranges, but defers the time for 
calling his body into action to perform a physical 
part, his spirit has already acted and is stained with 
guilt. But it should not be held, because the spirit 
can act and incur guilt, that it cannot think, plan, and 
arrange for good as well as for evil. The argument 
made is meant to show that there is a spirit mind in man 
8 



114 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

that thinks and acts for itself, that can be guilty or in- 
nocent according to its conduct, and that its material 
temple or body is wholly at its service. 

The body of man, animated by intelligent as well as 
animal life, is dependent on the life for its protection. 
The life owns the body, and not the body the life. The 
body is made for the Hfe's service, to be used by the 
life, and is in no sens^ per se accountable to the life, 
nor is it in any way responsible for conduct. It simply 
does as the Hfe makes it do. As a means of connecting 
the life with the material world, the life would 
make the body as perfect as possible. It takes care of 
it in the embryo state, guards it in all nutrition and 
growth, and labors with it to make it as perfect a 
means as possible for communicating with the worlds 
of matter. The intelligent spirit life seems to use a 
fatherly care over the body or medium that gives it 
connection with material things. It shows no disposi- 
tion to break the connection, but loves it and cherishes 
it for its own delight and knowledge. This is done not 
altogether through love of the body, but in a larger 
sense through attachment to the means that afford the 
pleasure, delights, and knowledge that come by its 
connection with matter. 

Now let a moment be taken to look particularly on 
the life in connection with the body it animates. In 
the vegetable kingdom it is comparatively without de- 
fense. The body of such a life is the prey of all ene- 
mies. There is no trembling nerve, no warning voice, 
no uplifted hand at the approach of danger. The ten- 
der climbing vine and the sturdy oak fall into decay 
and death alike, without warning and without resist- 
ance, except such as fiber and w^ood can yield, together 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. II5 

with the effort upon the part of Hf e to repair the inflicted 
injuries. There is a marked improvement in the ar- 
rangement as seen when the lower orders of animals 
are put under review. Here is beheld a higher plane 
of instinctive life ; a frame that can tremble at sight of 
danger, a voice that can cry for help, ways and means 
of defense when attacked, legs and wings that can 
carry the body from the field of danger. 

But man is a being all to himself, is over a bridge 
that the material evolutionist has never spanned, and, 
according to the light now shining, the probabilities 
are that his task will never be done. Man is in the 
territory of life with mind, a spirit life. It is an intel- 
ligent life that stirs a molecular action in the nervous 
system and intelligently shakes the body from head to 
foot to arouse the man-consciousness to danger and de- 
fense; a life that apprehends danger before it is seen 
with natural sense and prepares, plans, and builds for 
defense. 

The mere instinctive life in beasts, and both the in- 
stinctive and intelligent life in man, make a hard bat- 
tle for the safety and preservation of the material 
body. Wherever there is a voice, a hand, legs, and 
wings, they are called into action. The body is the 
life's home, and it loves that home with care and 
sacred devotion. It will yield that home to destruc- 
tion only in the hour of last extremity. All wounds 
are healed and all repairs are made within the range 
of the life's power. Even in the moments of great 
pain, gaping wounds and flowing blood, it struggles 
not for release, but to make repairs, and still preserve 
and keep its battered and ruined home; and even in 
the extreme hour, when hope has fled and the ruined 



ii6 



MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



tenement must be abandoned, the intelligent spirit-life 
sends forth through the body a groan as a parting mes- 
sage of its love and its own anguish under the com- 
pulsory separation. 

The living mental man exists in a material mold. 
It is the matrix of his being ; and though he is a living 
and acting being, yet while in his first stage or earthly 
epoch he is dwelling in a tomb. When through the 
unfitness or death of his body he gets release, it will 
be as a birth into the beginning of a new epoch in his 
existence. Yet whatever may be his hope, whatever his 
faith in an awaiting blessedness and knowledge, the 
rational man would still cling to his first epoch and 
material tomb. He knows that whenever he leaves it 
the beautiful organism falls into unorganized clay. 
In the midst of his highest reason to the contrary, it 
seems to be himself and about all there is of him. 
Hence he loves to stay with it and is loath to separate 
from it, nor will he do this except in the extreme hour. 
Man cannot bear to see his body grow pale and start 
on the way to decay and ruin. In a thoughtless hour 
it appears too much like blotting out his existence from 
the universe. He can bear his halting gait and his in- 
creased disposition to seek rest better than to behold 
himself in a mirror. This speaks to his eyes with in- 
tensest emphasis. 

Man's spirit loves his material body and the tomb 
life of his first epoch. The body has been a joy and 
delight to the spirit mind, and would be forever if it 
did not become more and more unserviceable through 
the wear of time, disease, and age. In its perfection 
it brings him sweet sounds and delightful visions of 
all things in the earth, and connects him with the 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. II7 

rhythm of distant orbs — the sun, moon, and starry host. 
Through it the spirit Ufe speaks to them and they 
speak back to it. But time affects the sense. The eyes 
grow dim, the ears grow dull, and paralysis seizes the 
brain itself; the stupidity of consciousness increases, 
attention declines, and general obHviousness spreads 
the warning curtain. Gradually the power of the life's 
connection with the material world abates, and there 
is no longer utility of the body and the spirit of man 
breaks out of its material matrix and enters into the 
birth of a new epoch. 

Man does not know that the contamination of the 
spirit mind with matter has ever added strength to its 
faculties. While it is highly supposable that spirit 
cannot discern matter except by being clothed in a body 
of matter, and that in this way spirit is enabled to get 
a knowledge of material things it could not otherwise 
possess, yet even this gives no proof that the spirit's 
faculties have been strengthened. The revealment of 
man's own mind and knowledge seems only to typify 
the great strength and knowledge of the mind spirit 
when unembarrassed with matter. The following quo- 
tation from Paul the apostle will help to establish this 
truth : "Now we see in a mirror, darkly ; but then face 
to face: now I know^ in part; but then shall I know 
even as also I am known." 

Man knows that there is something enjoyable and 
delighting to the mind spirit within him on beholding 
the material universe through his artistic and well- 
arranged physical form. Furthermore, whatever may 
be the power of faculties and innate intelligence of the 
pure spirit mind, and however little spirit may need 
schools and universities for its training and improve- 



Il8 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

ment, yet man knows that he has consciousness only in 
the direction that his intelHgent spirit is connected 
with matter. He experiences this narrowness within 
him, and in the midst of it he feels his weakness almost 
unto lamentation. It gives him distress and makes him 
dissatisfied with himself. He feels that something 
is limiting his power and hedging his progress, and 
he spends his life trying to break down the walls of 
his mental imprisonment. Why this dissatisfaction? 
Why this ambition and striving for the unattainable? 
There seems to be no conceivable answer except through 
an acknowledgment that there is associated with man 
a spirit with endowment and knovv^ledge that cannot 
be revealed to man consciousness through his body of 
matter; that the sense perception of the spirit mind 
outside of matter is more perfect and far better than 
through a body of matter. 

There certainly must be a difference between the 
consciousness and knowledge of man's pure spirit and 
man himself. Man's consciousness and resulting 
knowledge must be a revealment to him through ma- 
terial channels. Pure spirit may be wise every way 
except in the knowledge it obtains of matter by its 
connection with this category through a material body 
given unto it. Man begins life without knowledge, 
either connate or intuitive. It cannot be so declared 
of man's spirit, of which mind must be a concomitant. 
Man is dependent on sense connection with the phys- 
ical world for his knowledge ; but his spirit, otherwise 
intelligent, depends on the material sense connection 
only for its knowledge of matter. Knowledge comes to 
man g-raduallv and unfolds increasingly; and it would 



THE ONLY INTERMEDIARY BEING. Up 

seem, in respect to the universe of matter, that is true 
with his otherwise inteUigent spirit. 

There seems to be no proof that the pure spirit and 
mind of man are as ignorant, as uneducated as man is 
in his own Hmited man consciousness. May there not 
be and is there not a distinction ? The spirit and mind, 
holding the office of instructor to this new being called 
man, must have a precedent knowledge even of matter 
before they can impart it to the man consciousness. 
It may be that man's progress in the knowledge of ma- 
terial things is identical with his spirit and mind prog- 
ress, that they move forward pari-passuj but of this 
there is no proof; for there is quite a difference be- 
tween pure mind perception, even through an arranged 
body of matter, and giving the man consciousness of 
the things perceived ; for in this case there is perceived 
the superior knowledge and office of teacher. The pure 
spirit mind of man may have known that color is in the 
light, and not in the material object that seems to 
possess it, long before it was revealed to the human 
understanding. 

Man, standing out the peculiar creature that he is, 
compound of animal life, spirit and matter, is seeking 
education for himself and not for pure spirit. He has 
mind, faculties, consciousness, and knowledge. When 
he appeared, he was a new creature in the universe. He 
is so constituted that the knowledge in the universe 
must be revealed to him through material sense. But 
even in this he is limited. After having gone his full 
extent, as a man he is still the object of compassion on 
account of his weakness and ignorance. He bears 
within him, as his history shows, the signs of progress, 
and is beating on toward that evolution and enlighten- 



120 MATTER, MAN, AND SPlRlt. 

ment that comes of material dissolution, when that 
High One, who gave him his mysterioius being, shall 
more widely open the range of his understanding and 
establish within him a nobler complacency with de- 
lightful employment in his approaching epoch. 

In view of all that man is made to feel when engaged 
in thoughtful meditation on himself, in view of the fact 
that he was created in humility but with a capacity for 
immeasurable growth in tmderstanding and knowledge, 
in view of the truth that his unprejudiced rationalistic 
meditations gracefully led him to the conviction that 
he has a principle within him, an intelligent and immor- 
tal soul that constitutes him different from all other 
earthly beings and makes him feel his responsibility — 
therefore he can do no better than in worshipful spirit 
to adore God, who created him. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Philosophy and Science of the Bible; 
'OR, Religion' and Science. 

I. The character and nature of the Bible. Before 
entering upon a discussion of propositions it is 
thought best to introduce them by speaking a few 
words concerning the general character of the Bible. 
It is the most remarkable as well as the most pecul- 
iar book in the world, and in some of its divisions the 
most ancient. It certainly goes as far back in the 
treatment of subjects as is possible for any book, 
even to the creation. It appears to be not so much a 
book made as a book that grew. It may be regarded 
as a library, but a library of that particular kind which 
impresses the thought that it is a symposium of moral 
science and religious truth for the first four thou- 
sand years of man's history. It closes with this data, 
claiming that in religion it has furnished the neces- 
sary information for all ages yet to come. 

The Bible is the connecting thought between the 
visible and Invisible, between God and man. In il- 
lustration of its doctrine and truth it narrates some 
beautiful stories of both men and women, but about 
as many in the various colors of evil life. It often 
shows a great mixture of good and evil in a human 
life. Nothing Is condoned, covered, or hidden. 
Truth is spoken, and everything Is left exposed and 
to take care of Itself. More than any other book 
it speaks the full truth, whether treating of general 



122 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

history or biography. Hence there is no discover- 
able intention anywhere to make a hero of any one. 
Men are dealt with in their true character. Wher- 
ever a life appeared beautiful, the Bible undoubtedly 
gives a faithful portraiture of character, without the 
purpose of praise. And thus it is with all, whether 
of good, bad, or mixed character. There is no sign 
of prejudice that would disguise the truth in the 
whole narration. 

Of course the Bible deals with civil commotions, 
wars, and battles. Yet no book ever written is so 
free from human weakness in its authors. It is with- 
out gloss, comment, scientific treatise, or philosoph- 
ical disquisition. Whether the Bible be regarded as 
inspired or not, it nevertheless shows a peculiarity 
and faithfulness for truth unknown in any other book. 
The Bible is peculiar because : 

1. In all its various history and teaching it keeps 
one Being, God, constantly before the reader. It 
is his spoken word to man as much as is the earth, 
the sun, the moon, and the stars. His great Per- 
sonality cannot be escaped in reading any part of it. 

2. It is the talking word between the invisible and 
the visible, between mind and matter, between God 
and man. It is the necessary voice that comes out 
of the Invisible, and is wisdom, authority, and law to 
the visible and Intelligent world. 

3. All things of doctrine taught are assumed as 
axiomatic principles or truths. There Is no Inten- 
tional labor to prove anything, although It deals 
more largely than any other book with the meta- 
physical, with God, angels, spirit, the soul, mind, 
will, and unseen habitations. God and his attributes 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 23 

are its axioms, its own data are its postulates, the 
whole is a suggested theorem to man. 

These are only a few brief statements of the Bible. 
It may be inquired why these peculiarities? The 
answer is contained in one word : it claims God as its 
Author, and therefore that truth is spoken. If truth, 
it needs no proof in the ordinary processes of making 
demonstration. Much of its historical peculiarity 
arises out of changing customs and manners for a 
period of four thousand years. Its chronology is 
as good as any. Its ancient genealogical tables, pre- 
sented with such simplicity, accuracy, and historical 
skill, are incomparable and a great wonder. The 
ancient discovery of the rights of man and the early 
distinctions between right and wrong have been lit- 
tle improved unto this day. Various forms of gov- 
ernment were tried by the clamor of the people ; but 
there was always a branch of human mercy shown 
and a thread of reserved and natural rights preserved 
all the w^ay from the Sinaitic theocracy to Christ. 
Then there was a declared dissolution of Church and 
State. ^'My kingdom is not of this world/' The 
kingdom of peace tmder the authority of Heaven was 
then divorced from temporal kingdoms, with due 
notice that the Sinaitic union of Church and State 
w^as forever ended. From that time, under the lights 
that had shone, the responsibility of temporal gov- 
ernments was placed upon the shoulders of men. 

But the Bible was long ago completed and stands 
as a proposition to man. Its authority is of God ; its 
wisdom from the same source ; its merit is handed 
over to human intelligence and experience. It is a 
freewill offering, sealed with blood, and the never-to- 



124 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

be-divided heritage of the world. Within itself it is 
the greatest proposition the world has ever had before 
it. As it is the product of ages, scarcely less than 
ages can give it full demonstration. Yet in this great 
proposition there are contained various other propo- 
sitions. But they are of a secondary nature. Hence 
in the very beginning of the Bible, in the first sen- 
tence, two propositions of science and philosophy are 
submitted to the inquiring mind : the proposition that 
God exists, and the proposition that he created the 
heaven and the earth. The first of these proposi- 
tions is considered in the chapters treating of cause. 
The proposition of the creation will now be looked 
after and will be submitted in the following form — 
viz. : 

II. Has physical science made any discovery that 
disproves the Mosaic philosophy of the creation as 
contained in the first and second chapters of Genesis? 
This and other propositions that will follow assume 
this form of negation in order that the physical sci- 
entist may see more clearly the ground on which 
he stands, and that the Christian philosopher may 
see more clearly from what quarter and in what de- 
gree his faith is threatened. This is necessary, since 
illegitimate conclusions are talked of as though they 
were really demonstrated truths. Neither side of 
this question should have an ambition for more or 
less than the truth. Seeking for the truth should be 
an honest and unprejudiced inquiry. When truths 
are really found, they become the mightiest powers, 
for they disarm all antagonism and leave it utterly 
defenseless. 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 25 

thinking conclusions are too hastily reached and en- 
tertained, and therefore, for a time, close the gates 
of the understanding and of progress. This state of 
things may be produced by covertly putting more in 
the conclusions than is contained in the argument, or 
through prejudice or eager desire to destroy, neither 
of which is consistent with fair discussion. 

Since the Mosaic account of the creation is so 
hoary-headed and has withstood the tests of so many 
centuries, it is assumed that there is nothing unfair 
to science in the statement of the proposition. The 
question is one of the greatest importance to the 
whole world. Since the Mosaic account claims the 
wisdom of inspiration, the validity of the Holy Scrip- 
tures as the word of God is largely involved. Science 
is simply called on to show whether it has dis- 
covered data proving that the Mosaic account is un- 
philosophical and untrue. It is a question not of 
surmise or probability, but of fact. 

In this age of education, advanced thought, dis- 
covery, and invention there is a natural tendency to 
look upon the ancients, comparatively, as a people 
uncultivated, of mental weakness, and superstitious. 
Should this be accepted as true, and, at the same time, 
should the Mosaic account of the creation be authen- 
tically accepted considering the ancient date when 
that philosophy was first reported, it would be no 
mean proof that the account then given is really what 
it claims to be, a pure word of inspiration. Otherwise 
it would be of inconceivable possibility. With this 
view of the case, the ignorant and superstitious an- 
cients would have been incapable of the invention. 

In the investigation of the subject there are but 



126 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

two main questions involved, chronology and man- 
ner, the time in which the creation was performed 
and the things that were first made. Before enter- 
ing on any proofs, it is necessary in the first instance 
to put both the Mosaic philosophy and science in a 
proper light before the understanding. This is neces- 
sary because false claims have been set up for both 
the Mosaic philosophy and science. While advanced 
science, in a general way, appears quite modern, the 
Mosaic philosophy is very ancient, for Moses lived 
and wrote more than a thousand years before such 
lights as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle appeared on 
the stage of philosophy and science. Yet before 
Moses the stars had been considered and philosophy 
had become more than a name. 

The Mosaic treatise of the creation is very brief, 
simply a compendium of thought or knowledge. So 
far as history shows, it was long before the earth 
had been delved or the sides of the mountains and the 
cliffs of the rivers had been looked upon with a view 
of counting the number and age of the earth's strata. 
The Mosaic account, if separated from the idea of 
inspiration, appears as but a philosophical arrow shot 
at a venture. There was no worldly wisdom to sus- 
tain it. The greater wonder is, if it is to be regarded 
as an arrow of thought shot at a venture, how such 
wisdom happened in him that his philosophy has 
withstood the test of thirty-five hundred years, when 
everything else has proven evanescent or has been 
largely remodeled through advancing thought. His 
philosophy never came from Egypt, the country in 
which he was educated. 

The Mosaic account of the creation is simply a 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 27 

proposition of general and brief statement. It is em- 
braced in the first chapter of Genesis, and contains 
less than one thousand words. They are but expres- 
sions of manner or elaborate work, and no proof is 
given except that God did it all. While days are men- 
tioned as a method of counting, it cannot be proven 
that he mentioned or intended to teach natural days, 
because the work began before there existed a nat- 
ural day; and indeed the greater work, that of crea- 
ting the ''heaven and earth,'' preceded the possibility 
of the existence of natural days. Natural days could 
be counted only after these had been created and set 
in order. Moses should be understood on this point 
in the light of reason. Nothing but reason can re- 
lieve the mind of trouble generated by the false con- 
struction of an author's intention and meaning. 

Again, it is not to be assumed that Moses teaches 
that the sun, the moon, and the stars were not made 
until the fourth day. For this would be a contradic- 
tion of his former statement, when he says : ''In the 
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 
Moses never meant any more that the "heavens," the 
sun, moon, and stars, were created on the fourth day 
than he did the earth. He had already said that they 
were created together. It was simply a manner of 
referring back, and is of the same nature as that ref- 
erence back to the creation as contained in the second 
chapter. Again, Moses sets up no claim that he has 
told all about the creation. He simply makes God 
the Creator, gives general statements of how things 
appeared in general relation, and is not particularly 
descriptive except in the creation of man. 

Now a few words in reference to physical science 



128 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

and philosophy otherwise. They have never been 
able to invent a better philosophy of the creation than 
is contained in the Mosaic account. Science has in- 
vestigated the strata of the earth, something that 
indicates times and age, but found nothing that ma- 
terially mihtates against the Mosaic philosophy. 
Science ha? sought hard for the origin of man through 
the theory of evolution, but found nothing satisfy- 
ing, nothing half as reasonable as the Mosaic ac- 
count of man's origin. Science talks volubly about 
atoms, but it does not knov^ what an atom is. It ac- 
knowledges that it must stop and guess, and has 
estabHshed its theory in the faith of what it guesses 
to be true. When divested of its false apparel, it has 
about as much faith, ignorance, and superstition in 
as can possibly be in the Bible. If true science is 
knowledge, about three-fourths of that reported is not 
science at all. Science has discovered rules by which 

^ different kinds of matter are regulated and com- 
V-^ pounded, but it Is made to stop at this point. It fol- 

/j lows John Dalton and founds the atomic theory. 
It is a guess ; for it is unable to look into the dividing 
line between matter and nothing, or between matter 
and an invisible something else, or even to contem- 
plate the dividing line between the invisible something 
else and nothing. The materialist has no mind to 
think of the dividing line between the finest or least 
entity and no entity at all. He knows not what an 
atom is or that there is any such thing in existence. 
But it is unnecessary to indulge further thought in 
this direction. The Mosaic account of the creation is 
the question. Moses says : 'Tn the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth,'' Moses evidently 




THILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 29 

refers to the material creation. This is a chronology 
without a date. It is to be understood by this creation 
that it was the beginning of time so far as matter is 
concerned. It teaches that the earth, sun, moon, and 
stars were created at the same time. The time of this 
creation is unknown. Is there anything in science 
or in other philosophy than that of Moses which 
shows anything to the contrary? But some would 
object because God's name is in it. Well, let the ma- 
terialist get his name out of it if he can. He must 
substitute something that is the equal, and that equal 
is God. But some would fix one date and some 
another. All are free to fix dates, but their dates 
will do no violence to Moses. He is not concerned 
with dates. He merely says : ^^In the beginning." 

Moses next savs: ^^And the earth was without 
form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the 
deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters." Words could not be more aptly 
chosen to describe the chaotic condition o£ the earth. 
The other planets of the universe may have been 
once chaotic like unto it. This is only a description 
of the earth after it was created. Moses still fixes 
no chronology. It was impossible. No light could 
get to the solid body of the earth, for he says there 
was "darkness upon the face of the deep." Had 
there been inhabitants on the earth, they could have 
counted time only in darkness. Hence there was no 
need of fixing a date, and Moses does not, and there- 
fore says nothing about how long this chaotic state 
lasted. Scientists and philosophers must admit this 
condition. They have made no discovery contrary 
to it. 



130 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

Moses introduced the subject of the creation with 
a brief notice of the spheres of matter under the name 
of the ^'heaven and the earth/' and, having ahuded 
to the chaotic state of ah things, begins now to 
speak more particularly and tells what was done each 
day for a period of six days. They are days confined 
to the earth. Whether they were really six natural 
days or periods of time is unknown. In Bible ex- 
pression it is immaterial, for it speaks of days va- 
riously as encompassing periods of time. With 
Moses, who had such knowledge of and faith in 
God's power, it was altogether immaterial. There is 
reason to believe that the days mentioned held only 
a technical relation to the work that was done. For 
it must be considered that the Being who wrought 
in the creation is eternal, and that time In no sense 
can be associated with his nature and character. He 
does things in eternity, never in time so far as he is 
related, but time in the conception of his creatures. 
Hence the time mentioned seems rather to denote 
the divisions of the work, and is technically stated in 
periods of days to facilitate the human understand- 
ing. So when days are mentioned they should be 
understood as having no application to the Creator 
whatever, but simply a human conception. 

It is now that Moses begins to speak of that human 
conception called time. He here shows the first step 
taken to redeem the earth from chaos. He says : 
^'And God said, Let there be light: and there was 
light.'' It is not assumed by Moses that this was the 
first light In the universe, for he Is confining his 
philosophy for six days to the earth. In the Intro- 
dnrfinn to the.se six days he makes the statement as 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 13I 

to what God did in the beginning; but now speaks 
of six days especially for recovering the earth from 
chaos and creating the things upon it. Hence when 
God said ''Let there be light'^ he meant that which 
never had been on the earth. Since the work is con- 
fined especially to the earth, it is hardly rash to sup- 
ply what may be regarded as an ellipsis and read 
"'Let there be light'' on the earth. This cannot be 
regarded as doing violence to the word, but simply 
a structure for harmony. While God is acknowledged 
as the Creator of the light of the universe, in this 
instance it means a rifting away of chaotic condi- 
tions so that light might be on the face of the earth, 
which was even yet covered over with water and hid- 
den in vapor. For in the preceding sentence it is 
stated that ''darkness was upon the face of the deep/' 
So it is seen that the first day's work was begun in 
darkness, but ended in day or light. The earth be- 
fore was in such a chaotic condition that stars, moon, 
nor sun had any effect upon It until the dense and 
dark elements surrounding it were removed. But 
even yet it was not fair weather, for the Mosaic ac- 
count shows that fair weather did not come until the 
fourth day. Yet there could be day and night with- 
out seeing the shining sun, and there could be a 
natural day. So the first day was the time in which 
chaotic conditions were so far removed as to dis- 
tinguish between day and night. All this is so stub- 
bornly in keeping with the ideas of present day evo- 
lution that it seems almost to catch its spirit. There- 
fore it seems that material scientism has no ground 
for urging an objection. Why do not natural evolu- 
tionists recognize the scientific Moses? 



132 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

At this point it is needful to notice that special 
statement of scripture contained in the twentieth 
chapter of Exodus which says : "For in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in 
them is." In this statement Moses is in perfect har- 
mony with his philosophy in Genesis. He speaks of 
the heaven, the earth, and the sea comparatively. 
These are the parts that are concerned with the six 
days' creation. But it might be suggested by some 
one that ''heaven" in this statement means the starry 
host. By no means, for the philosophy of Genesis 
explains this point. In order that it may be well un- 
derstood what is meant by the word "heaven" as 
quoted in Exodus it is necessary to quote from Gene- 
sis to find the explanation. And God said, "Let there 
be a firmament,'' and divided the waters which were 
under the firmament from the waters which were 
above the firmament; "and it was so." "And God 
called the firmament Heaven,'' 

Since in Exodus the things appertaining to the 
earth are so aptly compared, and since in Genesis the 
created "firmament" or expansion was made and 
put in the midst of the waters of the earth in order 
to redeem it from a chaotic condition, and since it is 
stated "God called the firmament Heaven," the de- 
duction is both natural and easy ; that is to say, that 
the six days' creation mentioned in Exodus was the 
work of raising the earth out of its chaotic condi- 
tion, and giving to the dry land, the sea, and the at- 
mosphere their beings of life. Hence it is easy to 
perceive that the Mosaic philosophy is In harmony 
with Itself. 

The fourth day's creation has been a block of 



PHILOSOPHY And science. 133 

stumbling to many, and especially to those who are 
less inclined to be philosophical than Moses himself. 
God has always revealed himself in a way adapted 
to the understanding. The philosophy of Moses has 
this peculiarity : it was adapted to the understanding 
of the people of his day, and yet contained a deep- 
written undercurrent of thought that adapts it to 
the philosophical mind after the science of astron- 
omy has wonderfully advanced. Had Moses written 
his philosophy of the creation in the light of present 
astronomical knowledge, it could not then have been 
received favorably, and God would have reduced him- 
self to the level of a college professor, teaching nat- 
ural science, which is contrary to his character and 
dignity. He intends that man shall make his own 
discoveries, but he makes known facts appertaining 
to his spiritual welfare. 

Now in regard to the great and small Hghts and 
the stars appearing on the fourth day of creation, 
it was in harmony with astronomical knowledge of 
the Mosaic day. In this literal sense it was adapted 
to the thought of the people who regarded the earth 
as the largest body of matter in the universe. But 
that is not all, for it is in equal harmony with astro- 
nomical knowledge of this day. All that is necessary 
is for the reader not to be too literal, but philosoph- 
ical himself. It has already been noticed that the 
earth was, after its creation, in a chaotic state, and 
when light was first produced on the earth that it 
was by dividing between and rifting away chaotic 
conditions ; that there was sufficient light produced 
on the earth to distinguish day and night, but no 
proof of clear sky and fair weather. At the period 



134 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

of the fourth day chaotic conditions had been re- 
moved, and the sun, moon, and stars, which had been 
created ''in the beginning" with the earth, began to 
shine with round orb upon it. The Mosaic account is 
philosophy without an attempt to teach the science 
of astronomy. Heaven has never proposed to teach 
science, religion and moral science excepted. Moses 
gave the proposition for the philosophy of the uni- 
verse. Only philosophical minds are able rightly to 
take hold of it and consider it. If science has offered 
anything in disproof of the proposition, it is hard to 
find. Loose statements and illogical inferences are 
of no value. 

It only remains now to offer a few words concern- 
ing the order in which the things appeared or were 
made. It is repeated here that the days mentioned 
by Moses have no relation to God in his work. He 
sustains no relation to time. He only created, and 
did that creation in his eternity. There are divisions 
in all things he has ever made, for they are all things 
of time. The days themselves are divisions and things 
of time. Moses uses days to represent the divisions 
in God's work to accommodate things to the human 
understanding. Precedent and subsequent relate to 
time and not to eternity. Strictly speaking, God does 
not labor, rest, nor count time. He does not get 
tired nor sleep nor worship nor need a Sabbath day. 
He studies no problems, contemplates nothing before- 
hand; but is perfect, and therefore precision Itself. 

But speaking of the order In which things were 
made, science properly can find no fault. It Is true 
that science has beautifully carried Its paleontology 
deen dow/n into fVip TnvQfprip«5 nf fVip es\rfh Tf has 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. I35 

found that the beginnings of existences were exceed- 
ingly insignificant, that there was a gradual improve- 
ment in forms and kinds ; but in the midst of it all 
science has its own puzzles. It sees the forests that 
made the coal beds of the earth disappear. It sees 
the strongest creatures of the earth only in their im- 
bedded remains, the silent voices of a former exist- 
ence. All that can be said Is that the conditions 
so changed as to render further existence impossible. 
Yet all is allowed to science that is justifiable, and the 
whole intelHgent world is glad for the research and 
all truth that has been uncovered. 

But what has science found, or what does pale- 
ontology exhibit that contradicts or unsettles the 
Mosaic philosophy? It is true science shows some 
first beginnings of existences passed over and not 
mentioned by Moses ; but this is not sufficient to dis- 
turb the account of the creation he gives, for he be- 
gins with the least of the things he mentions and 
climbs up to man as the last, a truth which paleon- 
tology illustrates. Moses passes over anything that 
God produced in the chaotic condition of the earth, 
and begins after the waters had been divided from 
the waters and the dry land had appeared. On the 
dry land he puts them in the order of grass, and then 
seed-bearing herb, and then the fruit tree. Moses 
passed over what have insignificantly appeared In air 
and water until the fifth day, and begins with a gen- 
eral statement of marine and aerial creation. Not 
sponges, corals, and Crustacea, for it was the fifth 
day. He speaks of things corresponding with that 
period : fowl flying In the air, '^the waters bringing 
forth abundantly^' even "great whales.'' 



136 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT* 

In the first part of the sixth day, passing over all 
else, Moses spoke of the dry land animals suitable 
to man's age. Among the things mentioned are "the 
beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their 
kind." In thinking over the Mosaic account of the 
creation, it seems wonderful that the discoveries of 
science are so closely alHed with it and how truthful- 
ly it upholds. The only thing necessary is to take 
Moses philosophically as God's spoken word and sci- 
ence in its known truth. Then let true science pur- 
sue its research and bring to Hght as much as is pos- 
sible the things that are hidden, for there is a proph- 
ecy in the air that, while science may prove a remedy 
for certain superstitions in religion, it will yet be- 
come a great sustaining prop to the truth of God's 
word. 

III. Has physical science made any discovery which 
disproves that man has an immortal soul? In a propo- 
sition like this science might ask whether it has yet 
been proved that man has an immortal soul? That 
is, that something must reasonably support a fact be- 
fore it becomes necessary to offer anything in dis- 
proof or to show any discovery unto that end. The 
answer is that no absolute demonstration has ever 
been made of the soul's immortality. It is impos- 
sible, because there can be no intelligent conscious- 
ness of its existence after the death of the body. If 
there were a rational demonstration, it would be the 
end of debate. Yet there is large and reasonable 
evidence of its existence after death in the way of 
logical inference and otherwise ; also that the pecul- 
iarty of intelligent and moral life in man is strong 
evidence that the soul is, as a thing per se, incapable 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 37 

of mutation, and therefore cannot die or be annihi- 
lated. BeUef in the soul's immortality, founded on 
existing evidence, is a verdict so general in the in- 
telHgent world, as well as among the ignorant, that 
the truth of it should be set at rest unless science can 
offer as much evidence in disproof. Hence the prop- 
osition, and science is called for the disproof if it 
has anything to say. Science is not called on to 
express a mere skeptical opinion, for the materi- 
alist is established on that ground ; nor is science 
called on to state an inference that is full of doubt, 
but to show something of the nature that has in 
it the proof that it is impossible for the spirit of 
man, or his soul, to continue after the death of the 
body. 

There is a loose, but false, idea prevailing that the 
soul's immortality is the superstition and delusion of 
the ignorant. Never was anything more hypocrit- 
ical and false. On the contrary, the immortality of 
the soul is among the most intelligent of ideas. It 
belongs to the realm of intelligence, and was imposed 
into the human thought both by the wisdom of heaven 
and the highest circles of intelligence among men. 
As to the status of intelligent, thinking people of the 
present age, environment and proconceived opinion, 
without the warrant of considering data, have had 
their influence. As to the unthinking, ignorant, and 
superstitious, they follow their ideals. 

It is unnecessary in this age of general literature 
and intelligence to put in catalogue the universal con- 
sensus, ancient and modern, showing that mankind 
always have, even as they do now, assented to the 
truth of a future existence based on the soul's immor- 



I3S MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

tality. The thought has been the heritage of the ages, 
and has been meagerly disputed and never success- 
ful in any quarter. Without raising the question of 
source, as from whom, when, where, and under what 
circumstances the world got in possession of the idea 
of the soul's immortality, it is enough to know that it 
has the idea now as it has had it from time immemo- 
rial ; not in one quarter or among half the people, but 
throughout the whole world, among all people, of 
both high and low degree. There is no need of a mis- 
sionary to teach the idea anywhere, and never was 
so far as history shows. It is an accompanying 
thought with humanity whithersoever they have gone 
and colonized. 

It is true that much ignorance and superstition 
have marked the pathway of man, and much crude 
worship and various imagination. But amidst it all, 
whether tribes and nations were ignorant or intelli- 
gent, there has ever been an unabating tenacity of 
principle that has clung to the doctrine of the soul's 
immortaHty. It seems to be natural in their thought 
and culture. There have been persecutions, Chris- 
tian and heathen, and reHgious wars involving many 
questions of doctrine and faith ; but the world, 
whether heathen or Christian, has never lifted a hand 
of authority against the doctrine of the soul's future 
life. It has been so much the heritage of all and the 
belief of all that it has ever been the quiet question 
in all persecutions, religious wars, and the rising and 
falling of empires. 

The world differs, and from time immemorial has 
differed, on many features of religious thought. 
About these there has been much debate and con- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 39 

fusion, but the pages of history do not show that the 
soul's immortality has ever been a disturbing ques- 
tion of debate. It Is the acknowledged proposition 
of truth among all religions and creeds of religion. 
And outside the pale of churches, synagogues, 
mosques, and temples it is equally confessed and up- 
held as a universal truth. It is the thought of the 
mind, of the soul; and, like the soul itself, will not 
die. It is thought above the beast and things that 
perish, a thought that comes out of the invisible 
man, out of the invisible mind of the soul, telling 
man in his material complications that there dwells 
within him an immortality. 

But science, while it is unable to offer any reason- 
able disproof of the souFs existence and immortality, 
would ask to see the metaphysical question of that 
entity further investigated and explained. Science 
may not be satisfied with general human assent to 
the truth, nor even be quiet with Scripture declara- 
tion. This leads to that fundamental and basic in- 
quiry into human endowment; not education nor 
improvement nor refinement nor anything that is 
added to man through the influence of environments, 
but the faculties that are cognate with man's being 
and without which environment could never change 
him from being a beast. It is to consider that en- 
dowment or those faculties which differentiate a man 
from all known material existences. It would not be 
proper argument to compare the most degraded of 
mankind with the most improved of the highest spe- 
cies of the lower animals. This kind of argumenta- 
tion has been often indulged, but it leads to false 
conclusions. 



Ho MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

It is well known that man differentiates very ma- 
terially from the highest type of the lower animals. 
He improves his language, makes language when 
without, invents and makes use of the most compli- 
cated machinery, solves intricate problems by a sys- 
tematic course of thinking, counts the days and years, 
studies astronomy, and invents to help his vision, 
navigates the ocean, and founds States and empires 
under a system of laws. Nor is this all nor the half 
of all. He feels the responsibility of a moral life, and 
therefore thinks and investigates for right and wrong; 
he improves without ever being able to reach the 
end; he feels his need and calls on the universe for 
help ; a prayer is in his soul, whether he acknowledges 
it or not ; he thinks on life, death, a future state, and 
of God. These are only a few things mentioned that 
differentiate a man , from the highest type of the 
beast. 

It may now be asked, Why all these differences and 
a thousand more that are not put in this catalogue? 
The answer is that they are an endowment in man, 
or have grown out of a endowment that no beast 
has ever received. They cannot be taught to beasts, 
nor can beasts ever learn them or gravitate to them. 
They are man's department of being, his endowment. 
The line is drawn. Faculties do not come by culture 
or education. They are as certainly a creation as 
any part of man. Faculties or created endowment 
are the trouble with the natural evolutionists. They 
talk of a lost link in physical form, but have never 
found it. It would be a small matter even if they 
should. It would only lead to a greater task, in which 
thev would undertake to find something that is im- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. I4I 

possible. They would find their impossible task in 
seeking a link similar to man in its endowment and 
faculties. The world wants no aping and mimicry. 
It wants sense, philosophy, and reason. It wants, in 
the thing called man or next to man, a reasonable 
sign of man's special endowment and faculties. 

It is on the ground of this differentiation and no- 
bility of man that the idea or truth of human soul 
is founded. It may be seen that man's powers of 
thought and calculation are not features of his flesh 
or of mere animal life, but that they belong to some- 
thing else. A thing of such power and wisdom is en- 
titled to longevity, to existence when its temporal, 
material frame and mere animal life have gone to the 
dust as things of mutation. But a mind, a soul, or 
thinking principle in man can be conceived only in 
unity. If it perishes, how? Who can tell of its 
mutation ? What will this part be called ? And what 
will that ? Soul, soul one substance ; mind, soul and 
mind one substance and inseparable. But it will die. 
How? But it is annihilated. Inconceivable? But it 
was nothing anyway. That is a rash end of the ar- 
gument. Scientists talk of the immutability and in- 
destructibility of an atom. Why not talk about the 
immutability and indestructibility of that greater- 
unity, the human soul? 

This brings the thought to the consideration of 
man's creation. How different appears such a crea- 
tion from all else that was made ! How different the 
circumstances, and how different the movement of 
the divine hand! "Let us make man." There is no 
such expression when God created the beasts, the 
cattle, the fowl, the lion, the monkey, the horse, and 



'142 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

great whales. The expression is : "Let the waters 
bring forth abundantly.'' Let the dry land bring 
forth abundantly is also a reasonably included idea. 
Thus unceremoniously all other creatures than man 
were made. ''God spoke, and it was done." And 
even in the creation of the inanimate universe there 
is nothing revealed except a command and the ex- 
istence appeared. 

But in man's creation there was ceremony. A 
work was to be performed like unto nothing else. 
Mind and immortality were to be joined with matter. 
Not the mere unreasoning life of a beast that is sub- 
ject to mutation and death, but a created soul with 
mind that in some feature resembled the uncreated 
and eternal principle. Not eternal, but made in 
time, and to be everlasting. This soul with mind was 
put into possession of a most exquisitely formed ma- 
terial body or lens for intellectual perception. ''All 
flesh is not the same kind of flesh." Man's body and 
flesh differ from the body and flesh of all other phys- 
ical beings. It is a body, flesh, brain, and nerves 
vastly differentiating from all other animals. Neither 
the gorilla, champanzee, nor monkeys of whatever kind 
can obtain such a body, flesh, brain, or nerve. They 
are man's absolute possession, and necessary for in- 
tellectual sense perception. 

"And God said. Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness. . . . And God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created he him." 
What strange language is this concerning a crea- 
ture made ! If this image applies to the exqui- 
sitely formed body, there is no idea of immortality 
either included or to be understood, for material 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 43 

images are mutable. Nothing is more ungenerous 
in argument than to state that the material body 
was the image ; nothing is more unphilosophical. 
The image does not consist in mere Hfe ; if so, all liv- 
ing things are in God's image. Then in what does 
the image consist ? Evidently in that which differen- 
tiates a man from all other creatures of the earth. 
It consists in his endowment of soul and mind or (may 
it not be said?) of spirit and mind. There can be 
no conception of mind except as it is connected with 
spirit or soul. The mind of God is always conceived 
as related to the spirit of God. The image, then, must 
surely consist in spirit or soul and mind. But God is 
everlasting ; therefore the image, the likeness, of him 
is everlasting. Man is that image ; therefore man is 
everlasting, immortal. 

Mmd was the uncreated, the original. But mind 
and spirit dwell together, not separate, for mind is a 
quality or attribute of spirit. Such is God. Man 
made in his image is Hke him. Hence man is a soul 
and mind together. But God is not mutable ; there- 
fore man is not mutable — that is, his soul and mmd 
are not. God cannot perish. Man with spirit and mind 
like unto God cannot perish, and is therefore im- 
mortal. It is true the soul and mind of man were 
created, but they are like God. They are in his image. 
If they are mutable and perishable, they are not Hke 
God. They would not be in his image. 

But some one would say that knowledge, righteous- 
ness, and holiness constitute the image. They are 
qualities or attributes of the image and represent the 
image in its character. The material man could pos- 
sess this character, but not the true image. The true 



144 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

image was created a personal entity. The character 
and qualities appeared because they were necessary 
sequences of a positive image entity. God is an 
entity. He is spirit with mind. Nothing else is 
known. Nothing as an entity can be like him, in his 
image, except spirit and mind. Man is endowed with 
spirt and mind; therefore man was made in his 
image. 

These references have been made that science may 
see some of the evidences that man has an immortal 
soul. The subject has been treated philosophically, 
whether with reference to the Holy Scriptures or 
otherwise. Man has been found in possession of an 
endowment that science has been altogether unable 
to account for. As a borrowed idea, not of science, 
it is called an immortal spirit with mind. The Scrip- 
ture account of the creation of man furnishes the key 
that unlocks the door of the hidden mystery. It 
confirms the truth that science cannot help holding 
in suspicion that man has an endowment, the gift 
of the Creator, an immortal soul; something across 
a bridge that science has never spanned ; something 
that has no connecting link uniting it with any other 
earthly creature. This is the reason that man alone 
can hear God, think of God, and feel self-condemned 
when faithless and disobedient. 

Now, since religion, both in philosophy and in the 
Bible, has reason for its faith, and since it has such 
evidence of the immortality of the soul, science is 
permitted to put in its bill of complaint, file its ob- 
jections, and bring up any disproof in its own wis- 
dom. The intelligent world will not be satisfied with 
a threat. It disapproves ridicule and false charges 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 45 

of ignorance and superstition. It would have knowl- 
edge, or at least a good foundation for its belief. 
The immortality of the soul thus stands, and science 
should be dumb unless it can offer disproof on evi- 
dence of equal weight. 

The foregoing argument, in a large measure, may 
be reduced to the following syllogism : All beings 
endowed with qualities like their Creator, or in his 
image, whether pure spirit or spirit incarnated, are 
immortal. The soul of man is an incarnated being 
endowed with qualities like its Creator and in his 
image. Therefore the soul of man is immortal. 

IV. Does material science produce any evidence 
shozving that man is rising out of a low degree of cre- 
ation to a higher, any more than it shovus that he is 
rising out of a sunken degradation to the high level 
of his creation? This proposition involves the question 
of the truthfulness or fallacy of natural evolution. 
The mutation of species or the so-called science of 
evolution seems to have given satisfaction to certain 
minds called great ; and on the ground that they 
have spoken with authority, and their testimony has 
been received with respectful consideration and def- 
erence, many people who were believers in the Bible 
account of man's creation have grown nervous and 
shaky, being seized with great fear lest the Bible ac- 
count be proven a fable. But really nothing has been 
discovered up to this day and proven that is seriously 
alarming. 

All men should have a philosophical turn in their 
thought, let patience do her perfect work, and suffer 
alarm at nothing that appears. One thing is certain : 
the intelligent world will grow more and more con- 
ic 



14^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

sistent about truth, and will more and more correct 
the tangent lines from it as a center. This is the 
mission of pure education: to learn and know the 
truth. That is what general intelligence is for; that 
is its true meaning and operation. A certain quarter 
may render a verdict, but the whole world sits in 
judgment. Discovery and invention have brought 
the world face to face, and in such easy daily com- 
munication that a universal, intelligent consensus is 
easily and quickly obtained and erroneous thought 
detected and strangled before it has time to build 
strong castles. 

The world is growing more generous-hearted, less 
dogmatic, seemingly in a great hurry, but with much 
patience. It is becoming more philosophical and tol- 
erant both in its treatment of science and questions 
of religion. Everywhere scales have fallen from the 
eyes and vision been made more perfect. Certain old 
theories of science and religion have spun around, 
had their day, but now no longer gyrate. Incon- 
sistency is gradually yielding to consistency, and 
fallacy everywhere is giving out sure signs of great 
reformation. The world is growing weary of theories 
and vague speculation. It is now in love with truth 
more than with declamation. It wants logic first, but 
has no objection to beautiful banquets of rhetorical 
flowers in unelongated speech. 

As to natural evolution, it contains its own truths 
and is entitled to merit for all the truth it possesses. 
The world is wiser with the knowledge that has come 
of all its researches. All people should be believers 
in natural evolution S'O far as it has made discovery 
and found positive truth, and even in so far as it has 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 147 

found truth supported by evidence beyond a reason- 
able doubt. At first, in the heat of discovery, evolu- 
tion, like every other new invention based on a prob- 
ability, straightened itself back with presumptuous 
dignity, grasping a measure of conclusions which, in 
cooler hours of meditation, it has found were alto- 
gether unwarranted. It has been unable to find that 
life was ever a spontaneous generation. It has been 
unable to prove how man has appeared on the earth, 
even in physical form, by relation to other animal spe- 
cies. And there is a greater task before it than all 
that is behind. This is a subject not yet approached. 
Evolution has not yet led up to it. When, if ever, it 
gets to it, the human mind will be the great question. 
It will be put to the necessity of proving how this 
wonderful endowment came into existence. It has 
within it questions of insuperable difficulty. The world 
wants the truth, is not afraid of the truth, and, with 
whatever is found to be the truth, should be content. 
Whenever truth is found, everything else is made to 
stand around as best it can. Truth is unconcerned 
about other things which are not true, and is there- 
fore able to take care of itself. A right angle is 
ninety degrees, no more nor less. 

Evolution is the science of materialism. This 
science is skeptical of the Bible as God's revelation. 
It treats it as it does other ancient books. Evolu- 
tion is belief only in so far as matter and its phe- 
nomena reveal Virtuallv it makes matter the eter- 
nal principle and cause of all things. It is concerned 
with nothing but matter. It sees nothing but matter 
and the things matter has produced. According to 
evolution, all the invisible forces and life are the pro- 



14^ MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

ductions of that which is seen. How different is this 
science from the philosophy of the Bible! The basic 
principles stand in opposite directions. The philoso- 
phy of the Bible teaches that matter appeared by Hfe 
and unseen forces, whereas evolution teaches that 
they sprang from matter. Evolution begins with 
knowledge, the knowledge of matter, but runs into 
the territory of faith without making the proofs. The 
Bible philosopher begins in faith and runs down to 
where the evolutionist begins, matter and knowledge. 

Now the question arises : Which enthrones reason, 
the Bible philosopher or evolution? Or in other 
words, which was the first principle, God or matter? 
Or since reason is forced to admit that some Being 
of the nature of God must exist, did matter make that 
being or did that Being make matter? One or the 
other must be true.. It is a contradiction to admit 
both. 

After this brief notice of evolution, the question of 
the general proposition recurs : Is man emerging out 
of a low grade of creation, or is he cHmbing back to 
the height at which he first appeared ? Which is true, 
the doctrine of the Bible or the doctrine of evolu- 
tion ? The Bible account of man's creation is the old 
proposition of the world. It is unnecessary to re- 
peat here the high order of that creation. It is un- 
necessary to again rescore the thought on the image 
man bore. The thought should be conducted on the 
ground that man deteriorated and sunk himself be- 
low what he was originally; that he did this early 
after he appeared ; and this forms the ground why 
the thought of his low origin was entertained by the 
natural scientist or evolutionist, 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. I49 

This carries the thought to the philosophy of the 
Bible, which, outside of the fact that it is God's reve- 
lation, is as reHable as any historic data as evidence 
in the case. The story of man's transgression is told 
in simphcity, as is also the calamity that overtook 
him. It v/as before the race had multiplied, before it 
was necessary for man to exercise his faculties in 
material improvement, before there could be any 
show of art and literature. Yet he stood in his ac- 
knowledged endowment, clothed with dominion and 
authorized to rule the earth and subdue it. But ca- 
lamity befell him. His Heaven-born faculties, per- 
fect in their nature, were not destroyed, but rendered 
imperfect. He was driven as an outcast and made 
to "eat his bread in the sweat of his face.'' His 
mind, now not so clear, was forced through necessity 
to exercise, to discover, invent, and, as far as pos- 
sible, regain its lost power. Hence, not by creation 
but through calamity, man was forced to begin in a 
humble way. It is on this ground, so far as relates 
to man, that the evolutionist has built his mistake. 
Yet it is a history as clearly reasonable as any the 
world affords of ancient date. The discredit cast 
upon it by unbelievers is the reckless fallacy of opin- 
ion that nothing is true that has been handed down 
from ancient times. It is out of reason. There is 
no greater mistake. The genealogical tables from 
Adam to Christ bear the deepest impress of truth. 
This ancient history is no fable. The transgression 
and fall of man is history with the greatest mark of 
truth. 

The scientist reads the Bible account of man's 
creation. He grants that if it be true man is of high 



150 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

origin, and that under the increase of his kind he, 
from the first, would show the best of civiUzation. 
But then he turns his thought to the lowly condition 
of humanity, connects the lowest specimens of hu- 
manity with the best of the lower animals, fondly in- 
dulges faith, not knowledge, in what may be accom- 
plished by mutation of species, fancies he sees man 
spring from the lower animals, attributes to him this 
low origin, feels a complacency in the thought, as- 
sumes the dignity that follows a fancied discovery, 
and says the Bible account is a fable. He calls this 
disproof that man had a high origin, but it is no 
proof concerning man at all. There have always 
been difficulties in the way of evolution, unsolved be- 
fore man was reached. Evolution, whether looking 
upon the living or searching among the fossiliferous, 
has never found anything capable of changing its 
condition except man. Nothing else has ever im- 
proved. With them all there has ever been one uni- 
form, stable condition. How there could spring out. 
of such a nest a being such as man, a being so able 
to improve his condition, a being of such intellectual 
endowment and moral qualification, is a stretch of 
belief beyond any measure of faith exercised in the 
Bible. Yet evolution is a science concerning its own 
matters and should hold itself in proper restrictions. 
Indeed, it is a good rule that nothing grasps more 
than it contains. 

Therefore the way the matter stands man is climb- 
ing up, not from a low origin but from the calamity 
which befell him through transgression. He is steer- 
ing his course as best he can, through the ''sweat of 
his face" and through impinging hunger and naked- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 



15 



ness, for the crown that was lost. He acts as an un- 
crowned king, dissatisfied with his condition. That 
ambition that spurs him on is unaccounted for only 
in the sense that he feels a crown has been lost and 
it is possible to regain it. Hence, ever and un- 
abatingly, he is seeking to make his condition bet- 
ter. It is true that many in hours of discouragement 
and blasted hopes fall by the way and increase their 
misery because the sight of the crown is lost; yet, 
ever and anon, the trend of human thought, labor, 
and hope is reaching forward to the day when the 
'Uncrowned head shall wear its crown again. Then 
will the recrowned man be satisfied, because he will 
have attained to the goal of his ambition. Then the 
sweat and tears shall be wiped away, and hunger, 
cold, and nakedness evanish, and the countenance 
be lit up with joy and laughter. 

V. Has material science made any discovery that 
disproves the creation and existence of those imma- 
terial intelligences called ''the angels f The existence 
of such creatures is most positively a Bible teaching, 
and therefore belongs to Bible philosophy. Their 
existence as a metaphysical question has nO' more 
difficulty in its nature than the human soul and mind. 
They are all alike invisible and beyond the crucible 
of human experimentation and observation. It is 
foolish to contend that all or even one-half the places 
angels are mentioned in the Bible are but allusions 
to people of the earth doing mission work. Such an 
opinion is undeserving of notice. The divine word 
so broadly and numerously teaches the existence of 
angels as some kind of unincarnated spiritual intelli- 
gences that the denial of their existence would include 



152 ' MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

the idea of general unbelief of the Bible. A belief in 
this Bible doctrine or Bible philosophy is founded 
upon evidence so strong that there can creep about 
it hardly a reasonable doubt. 

In the first instance, let evidence be produced after 
the manner in which the evolutionist reasons. When he 
steps down into paleontology under the law of de- 
velopment he sees the coming man far in the distance 
and above any other earthly creature. He holds in 
his thought the mutation of species and sets up a 
claim for wonderful accomplishments growing out of 
it. The probability is that the thought is of right 
conception, but he blunders in his conclusions. 
Hence he labors hard to find something impossible. 
With his surveying eye he has looked upon all exist- 
ing physical beings and dug into the bowels of the 
earth to find man's connected relation to the lower 
orders of physical beings. He thinks evolution will 
have accomplished its great purpose with such dis- 
covery. He desires to see the connected relation of 
things which Is a thought of great beauty ; yet it is 
only a thought. This is the way the evolutionist 
reasons. It is fair that It should have an application 
in the direction of angel existences. 

Man stands in the tangibility of his material form 
the most wonderful phenomenon of all the earth. 
All eyes gaze upon him. Yet they behold only a 
specimen of organized matter. This man form has 
animal life In common with all other living organ- 
isms. But more : the man has mind and intelli- 
gence. These cannot reasonably be separated from 
some kind of spiritual entity Incarnated in his won- 
derful and artistic body. It is spirit or soul that has 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. I53 

life; mind and intelligence are its qualities. This 
is what is called the immortal soul with mind, and 
this has something to do with all bodily movements 
which involve intelligence and questions of right and 
wrong. From this beginning point God, the First 
Cause, lies away off in the distance. A step is made 
toward him from the spiritual or incarnated soul of 
man from this mind, dulled in its vision and weakened 
by its connection with matter. From this fettered 
and incarnated soul of man the first step is into the 
unincarnated condition of spirit existence. In this 
realm nothing enters the thought as a conception 
except that which is revealed, the angelic host. It 
is the realm of unseen forces, intelligent forces un- 
contaminated with matter. If intelligent entities are 
allowed to exist, it must be the revealed truth that 
they are those spiritual creatures called the angels. 
This is just as reasonable and as easily accounted for 
as the mind of man. There is no conception that it 
would require a different quality of mind and power 
to produce in either case. The wisdom and power 
that can produce the human mind that is known to 
exist is capable of producing the human soul that 
put it In a material body, and the unincarnated spirit- 
ualities called the angels. 

But still reasoning after the manner of the evolu- 
tionist, what is the next step of approach toward God, 
the First Cause? The Bible is silent, and human con- 
ception is at an end. This is as far as man can go, 
and the revealed word assisted to this goal. But 
even as there appear different grades and powers 
among men, as is witnessed of all, so likewise the 
Bible continues its philosophy of revealed truth and 



154 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

shows that the angels are of different grade and 
power. There are commanders among them clothed 
with peculiar power and authority. When believed, 
it is almost shuddering to think of such created in- 
telligences as Michael and of Lucifer, though he be 
fallen ; yet even such creation is not unreasonable 
when there is behef in God, an acknowledgment of 
his wisdom and power and the mysteries of all nature. 
Every field of gathered matter is not of the same size. 
Inequahty is a feature of the physical universe. In- 
equality is a feature of the created things of earth. 
Inequahty is a feature in man's kind. Inequality is 
a feature in angelic existences. 

The philosophy of the Bible teaches that God is 
spirit. He did not make his spirit. If he made spirit, 
it was spirit different from his own spirit. It could 
not be spirit of his. own kind. That is absurd ; for 
if he should make spirit of his own kind, he would 
create something equal to himself which would ren- 
der his own destruction possible. The thing made is 
always less than him who made it. Hence such mas- 
ter beings of creation as Michael and Lucifer among 
the angels are to be regarded small when held in com- 
parison with the Creator; yet they are highest up in 
the scale of created intelligences so far as the Bible 
philosophy teaches, and this is the limit of human 
conception and of philosophical knowledge based 
upon testimony in this direction. 

But like the evolutionist as he approaches toward 
man, a stopping place is found. There is no link of 
created things that directly connects creation with 
God. Archangel* is the highest ; yet it may be con- 
ceived that there is greater breadth between an arch- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 1 55 

angel and God than between the latent life that 
dwells in protoplasm and archangel Likewise there 
is no link between man and any other creature ol 
the earth connecting him with it. Man is altogether 
a different order of being, a king over all material 
being. True, he dwells incarnated in a body of mat- 
ter, and therefore the humblest of his class of being; 
but his kinship is the other way on the ascending 
scale toward the angels and toward God, with ani- 
mal life toward the beast, with spirit life toward 
angels and God. 

The argument to be made now is by an inductive 
reasoning or an analogy from the things of the 
earth, introducing the idea of secondary forces or 
forces other than God immediately or through which 
the government of the universe and the particular 
things of the universe are carried on, and to show 
that there are forces that act not only on matter but 
on mind also, or rather perhaps on the spirit, soul, 
or the thing that contains the mind. It is well known 
that there exists a principle called gravity, and that 
matter is in the hands of that principle. The prob- 
ability is that gravity is not cognate with matter. 
Various reasons for this probability would here be 
introduced, but they are forborne lest they should 
too much interfere with the proper connection of the 
present argument. 

Allowing and acknowledging that God is the great 
force of the universe, there dwell, nevertheless, sec- 
ondary forces of his creation and appointment that 
are related to and exercised in particular things. 
These are forces of life and forces of nonlife. Grav- 
ity is a force, but it cannot be claimed to have life. 



15^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

So also with light, heat, electricity, and certain other 
things. Yet gravity can do no variety of work. It 
can only give weight to matter and centralize it if 
left free to move. Whenever there is mind, though 
it may be confined in a body of matter, it is so pro- 
ductive of variety of influences that it appears as a 
little cosmos within itself. 

Secondary forces are powers created and ap- 
pointed, and have continuity by the persistent hand 
that fixed them in their order ; and they, in the non- 
life relation, have the perfection and precision of 
the Creator. They have never exhibited a refractory 
nature. They must have these qualities or else they 
would be unfit to participate in the control of the 
material world. This is the reason of that precision 
in the march of the heavenly bodies of matter. The 
intelligent life forces would all have the same pre- 
cision and were created unto that end; but, being 
capable of a variety of performances, it seemed good 
and necessary that they should have mind given unto 
them for adaptation. Free agency and responsibility 
are, morally, concomitants with mind. The work to 
be performed by such free agents was made largely 
to depend on the obedience of their will. But in all 
the arrangement of the universe the forces were so 
divided and placed that the great forces are directly 
connected with physical nature, and, since they have 
neither mind, free agency, nor will, but have within 
themselves the perfection and precision of their Crea- 
tor, there can, as caused by them, never be a menace 
to the universal physical structure and arrangement. 

Now by inductive reasoning, using man as an 
analogy, the thought and idea may be carried to the 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 



^57 



angelic host not only as a creation for worshiping 
God and to have enjoyment in existence, but as a 
function in God's moral government; in what else, 
if anything, is unknown; but as really a function, 
according to the Bible, in the realm of spirit, mind, 
and intelligence as gravity and other principles of 
nonlife are functions in physical nature. Not with 
the steadiness of gravity, but as messengers or mis- 
sionaries of various service in particular departments. 
Man is the great moral and intelligent functionary 
among the things of the earth, for it was said to him : 
"Have dominion and subdue the earth." Hence the 
earth has always been, morally, just what man has 
made it, and is likely thus to continue ; for he is a free 
agent, and God works through him as a function in 
this sense. Man is never deserving of more in the 
earth than he makes the earth to him ; and his future 
progress, comfort, and happiness on the earth de- 
pend on the measure with which he brings his will 
into subserviency to the will of Him who gave him 
his being and gave him his appointment. For in that 
high will there is perfection. This is the only way 
of gaining that precision which is characteristic of the 
functions of nonlife where there is no free agency, 
where there is, therefore, no mind, no will, and no 
refractory nature. 

Seeing, then, that man, untractable and refractory 
as he is, is a limited functionary in God's moral gov- 
ernment and that God works upon his spirit without 
a destruction of his will, the thought easily glides to 
the angelic creation which, under Bible philosophy, 
are used as functionaries in God's moral government, 
with this difference, however, from man; for they. 



15^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

being spiritual and unincarnated, have business under 
appointment otherwise than among themselves. In 
the first instance the thought is turned to that class 
of angels that have proven themselves, have passed 
probation, or have passed to that stage of perfection 
in which their will is positively subservient to the 
will of their Creator. They have, therefore, in their 
character the precision and order that belong to the 
functionaries of nonlife. Being creatures of mind, 
they have adaptation, and are capable of service in 
a variety of ways and for numberless purposes. Some 
one might think that this is robbing God. Not at all. 
He is over all his work, and this shows his manner 
of executing the business of the universe; showing 
that mind forces in the moral universe are in strik- 
ing correspondence with the nonmind forces that are 
acknowledged in the physical universe. 

As to the might and power of the angels nothing 
can be believed only on evidence. The Bible gives 
the only testimony. The kind of belief here alluded 
to has the nature of all other belief, and stands ac- 
cording to faith in the witness. People's faith in a 
witness has always differed. The differences arise 
from different casts of thought, judgment, and preju- 
dice among the people. That the world has the Bible, 
that it gives witness to the angels of their mighty 
power, and that they are reported as functionaries 
in God's moral government is knowledge. That it 
is all true is belief. That it is false is unbelief. That 
doubtfully it may b^ true or it may be false is agnos- 
ticism. The Bible, being a peculiar book, claiming 
a divine origin of thought, speaks of the existence of 
angels as a fact. It could not consistently do other- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 



159 



wise. It is a philosophy that gives the world a prop- 
osition to solve if the world is not satisfied with the 
witness. Like much of other philosophy and science, 
it would seem very odd if all should agree. Men 
have not always agreed even when no fault was found 
with the witness. 

' In the existence of angels there is nothing con- 
trary to reason, though man sees nothing which he can 
declare their phenomena. Even should it be grant- 
ed that the philosophy of the materialist is tirue,^ 
that Hfe and intelligence are or can be generated by 
molecular action, it could not reasonably and con- 
sistently deny that through motion a living, intelli- 
gent entity unincarnated might fly out of matter. Yet 
it would be wonderful indeed. In view of it all, how 
even pure, unadulterated materialism can op-pose the 
existence of the angels, or how it can frame a con- 
sistent argument against their existence without a 
reaction of the cudgel on its own system, remains 
for the advocate of that theory to explain. 

The Bible does not propose to give the world a 
philosophy, and then in well-ordered scientific terms 
and argument make the proof of it. This would be 
a contradiction of its high origin. Indeed, the Bible 
does not mean to give the world a philosophy at all 
except in a moral sense. Yet, incidentally alluding to 
things related, it has given the world much philoso- 
phy which it can shape into propositions and use 
with its own methods of inquiry and discussion. The 
Bible speaks with such authority that the proposi- 
tions are handled as though they were already solved. 
They were solved and stood as self-evident truths 
in the mind of Him who spake. There is nothing 



l6o MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

said of the creation of the angels any more than of 
gravity or any other ftmctionary, Hving or nonUving, 
in God's government. It is pure logic that leads to 
the conclusion that the forces in both the physical 
and moral universe were created and were made for 
purposes. 

In this treatise nothing has been said about the 
things angels have done, on what missions sent, their 
forms and their ability to change their appearance, 
and a hundred other things that any tyro may learn 
by reading the sacred history that treats of them in 
the various offices they have filled. But enough has 
been spoken by way of argument in their cause. The 
main object was to speak of their existence philo- 
sophically. Not that the Bible needs this feeble 
vindication of this philosophical doctrine, but that 
some who have not well thought upon the subject 
may see not only the Bible declaration of angelic 
existences, but also the reasonableness of their ex- 
istences. Now worldy wisdom is as free as in all the 
past to make its own display. If it can make any 
meritorious disproof of angelic existences, all should 
be satisfied with any truth that may be shown. 

VI. Has evolution or science of any kind ever pro- 
dnced any proof that it is impossible for a man to mor- 
tify his animal nature and become spiritualised in 
thought J or, in other words, that he cannot be ''born 
againf In comparison with all other animals, there 
is something striking and prepossessing in the form 
and bodily conditions of man. Erect, with eyes set 
directly to the front, denoting precision, and on a 
horizontal line between the earth and sky, with firm 
step and unwabbling gait, he foretells in his mien 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. l6l 

before action that he is not altogether animal. In 
him, as an outward sign, there are no tusks and pro- 
truding jaws of viciousness, no hooked beaks and tal- 
ons for rending, no wings and legs for rapid flight from 
danger. He is the embodiment of courage. As a 
rule he is naked, and looks to be the most helpless 
among the things of the earth. His lack of the 
enumerated qualities denotes that he has other quali- 
ties and resources on which to draw as a supple- 
ment, or else his chances for survival would be at a 
discount. He wears the aspect of a being more 
meditative than ferocious. As a mere animal, consid- 
ering his nakedness and defenselessness, he never 
could have populated the earth. Yet he lives calmly 
in the midst of cretures far stronger than himself, 
and without fear, for he is easily master of all. 

It is other than animal qualities in man that cause 
him to exhibit the nobility of his being. Hence he 
is not always found thinking of himself as to how 
he may easily live and have plenty, for this is a pure 
animal nature; but often he thinks of himself in 
the light of moral character. While he is gaining 
sustenance along with and in liking to other ani- 
mals, the thought recurs as to the rightness and 
wrongness of his manners. As a mere animal such 
a thought, were it possible, would be a curse to his 
being; but as man he grows meditative under its in- 
fluence, although even to him it is often a perplexing 
annoyance. This introduces the thought to the 
truth that there is a warfare in man. It is the strife 
between the animal nature and the mind. The ani- 
mal nature would pull man to the earth along with the 
other animals, would keep him helplessly embarrassed 
II 



l62 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

with their natural propensities, and would sear him 
into unconsciousness of guilt for any of his manners. 

But the mind and reason of man are disposed not 
to suffer such manners as the animal nature produces 
to be passed by unchallenged and unrebuked. In 
much of animal nature the mind works in opposi- 
tion. It is a warfare, a contest of hard struggle. It 
presents a picture deplorable. It awakes a sorrow- 
ful feeling on beholding that such is man — the one 
pulling him down and holding him down as a beast 
in manners ; the other, often the weakest in the con- 
test, laboring to pull him up. The mind declares he 
shall be up, the lower propensities declaring, at the 
same time, that they will have satisfaction. 

If a man conceives that he is alone, and that there 
is no source to which he can appeal for help ; if, in the 
hour of his extremity, he goes out in single combat 
to make war against the ruthlessness and tyranny 
of his animal nature, to curb, restrain, and subdue 
his evil propensities — ^he presents a beautiful picture 
in the eyes of all good, is to be commended for his 
courage and praised for all that he accomplishes in 
his single combat. But how often has man thus 
hoped against hope ! How often has he retired from 
the contest in defeat, leaving his animal nature still 
dominating the better complaint of his mind ! 

The old Greek philosophers are to be admired, 
when they could appeal to no higher source than 
Jupiter, For their great and seemingly tireless effort 
to put the mind in full authority over the evil pro- 
pensities of animal nature. Yet their battle must 
have been a sad failure, for Diogenes, the cynic, in 
the time of greatest Greek lig-ht, rebuked the whole 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE, 1 63 

city of Athens when, in open day with Hghted lamp, 
he presented that scene of hunting for a man. He 
had a conception of what a man ought to be, but 
could find no one approaching his ideal, no one whose 
mind had sufficient control over his animal nature. 

Men, not merely the things of physical being, are 
what the world has needed in all ages. It is what the 
world needs to-day — men whose minds and reason 
are not dragged down by the evil propensities of 
nature and humbly trailed in the dust; men whose 
minds are not conquered by anger, malice, envy, 
avarice, covetousness, or any other quality of lower 
nature. The world has had experience enough with 
the kind of men that have filled it. It needs the new 
man, the man that has attained the new birth, who 
has so been born again that the animal nature is 
dominated unto its mortification, and mind and rea- 
son are exercised in the light of their unembarrassed 
liberty. 

The question rises : Is there a possible deliverance 
of man from such a deplorable condition as has been 
described? Is there to be found aid in the universe 
anywhere to raise him out of his helplessness? Or 
must he forever be in this warfare of mind and ani- 
mal nature, and, more often than otherwise, have his 
nobility dragged and trailed by the propensities of 
a lower nature ? Is it the judgment of worldly science 
and philosophy that man legitimately has no appeal, 
that he is limited to his own powers and resources? 
Why this judgment? Why this condemnation of 
those who claim the right of appeal? Why this de- 
risen when man, seeing accurately and with precision 
his helplessness, inquires into the secret chambers 



164 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

for help? Why this cry of ignorance and supersti- 
tion, when it is claimed that God will hear the cry of 
his intelligent children? Is such opposition not nar- 
rowness ? Is it philosophical? Is there not some one 
who hears the cry of the parched ground and every- 
thing that grows and has life ? Who feeds and nour- 
ishes even the smallest of things? How much more 
will he hear and help when he sees man stretching 
every nerve of brain and moral nature to rise to ex- 
cellency while embarrassed perpetually with the dis- 
position and propensities of an evil nature ! 

But a philosophy has been spoken unto the world 
that explains how man may obtain his release and 
his mind find its liberty. It comes from the highest 
source that philosophy has even been spoken to the 
world. It comes clothed in the reason even of ma- 
terialism itself. For if it be granted that materialism 
has produced man, it is seen that it has produced 
helps for him. It has not left him alone in a fatal 
miserableness of distress. It beforehand heard his 
cry of distress and provided for it. It daily hears his 
cry and brings him the harvest and fruits of the earth. 
But materialism is impossible; yet the cry of man is 
heard. His moral nature is in need as much as his 
physical. It equally needs a nourishing help. If the 
physical man would perish without harvest and its 
fruits, so likewise will the moral qualities of man fade 
away in combat with animal nature unless fed and 
maintained from the same source that brings ^'seed 
time and harvest." 

It is Christ, who is the Essence of all true philoso- 
phy, that has spoken for the release of man. It is 
contained in a simple sentence spoken in the dark- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE I65 

ness of the night, indicating the intellectual and moral 
darkness of the world. How simple the utterance, 
and yet how full of meaning when the Master said 
to the inquiring Nicodemus: ''Ye must be born 
again!'' How suitable the ocasion when, surrounded 
by his disciples, he holds darkness and light in their 
strange contrast to instruct the running, confessing, 
and inquiring Nicodemus ! It was as much as to say : 
It is dark now, but there will be daybreak and sun- 
rise in the morning. The mind of man is darkness 
now by the influence of a reigning animal nature; 
but the new birth will give daybreak and beautiful 
sunrise to his intellectual and moral being. It will 
bring liberty to the mind whose judgment is always 
against contentious, powerful, and corrupting nature. 
The doctrine was new to Nicodemus and all the 
world; and he, speaking for the world, asked: ''How 
can these things be ?" The mind of Nicodemus, even 
as the minds of millions unto this day, was clouded 
and embarrassed with materialism. He says : "How 
can a man be born again when he is old? Can he 
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be 
born ?" Nicodemus, as a material scientist, could see 
no farther than the phenomena of matter and the 
birth of a material being. He had been trained, as 
some are to-day, to look upon matter as the greatest 
thing in the universe; whereas it is small, weak, and 
helpless. Although a member of the orthodox Jew- 
ish Church, the Sadducean faith no doubt, in a de- 
gree, had corrupted his thought. If matter, as he 
thought, was the greatest thing in the universe; if 
there be no angel, spirit, or soul — he lacked the culture 
and conception that could revolve the metaphysics 



i66 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

and mystery of being ''born again." Nicodemus rec- 
ognized the Great Teacher, and declared him sent of 
God. He did not, with Jewish prejudice, declare the 
new doctrine impious, but asks in wonder how a man 
can be "born again when he is old." 

The doctrine of the new man of the earth was 
clothed in a new verbiage. "Ye must be born again." 
The earth must have a new man, a man like Adam 
before he became a transgressor, to whom it could 
with propriety and justly be said : ''Have dominion 
over the earth and subdue it." The time had come 
when the old philosophies should shed off some of their 
ungenerous opinions and step out into the daybreak 
of moral intellectualism. The invitation was not to 
transgress the law of reason, but to establish reason. 
It was an invitation to look upon the moral universe 
as well as upon the physical ; that the moral had equal 
claims upon man. It was the doctrine teaching man 
that he was heir to another birth, that the natural 
birth did not qualify him for "dominion over the 
earth." The history man has made in the earth 
stands as a great rebuke to him, and tells in the light 
of reason that he has always been in lack of certain 
qualification. He has long been trying to correct 
himself through education and worldly wisdom — with 
what success, history shows. After all the oppres- 
sion, blood, and failure, the humble philosopher of 
Galilee teaches that the earth needs a new man. "Ye 
must be born again.'' 

To Nicodemus Christ spake of two births. To 
science and philosophy, they must be equally mys- 
terious. ''That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In a birth of 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE, 1 67 

the flesh the phenomena of matter is witnessed, but 
unexplained. In the birth of the spirit the phenom- 
ena of the new hfe is witnessed, but the birth unex- 
plained. There is something created or new in either 
case. The power that creates the growth and natural 
birth and the power that creates the renovation of 
spirit or soul are equally mysterious. The phenomena 
of a physical man conveys the thought back to his 
birth, and the phenomenon of a man upright in all 
his ways conveys the thought back to the change 
wrought in him, or to his spiritual birth. The spirit 
or soul of man contains his mind, and they direct and 
control his bodily manners. It is called a spiritual 
birth because spirit is in control, because spirit is 
really the man. God is spirit and mind, and he cor- 
rects, improves, changes, and gives the new birth to 
man by operation on his spirit and mind. When 
Christ says, ''Ye must be born again," he puts spirit 
and mind over the physical man, and leaves the ma- 
terialistic philosophy to take care of itself. 

If the theory of evolution were true, it could not 
stop short of a new birth in the man species. Such 
is its idea. It contains an infinity of conclusions 
reaching unto the gods themselves. What Its con- 
ception of the new man of the earth would be is left 
for its advocates to explain. But Christ, in the sim- 
plicity of his doctrine, takes the same man of the 
earth, consults his reason, talks to him as a philoso- 
pher, and says : ''Ye must be born again.' ^ He labors 
with man's spirit and mind, and seeks to get them 
right in the first instance. When these are made 
new, "born again," they, being masters of the body, 
will make it in manners as perfect as themselves. 



i6§ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPTRIT-. 

This is his philosophical way of making the race of 
mm iiew in. all the earth. 

The apostle Paul is a fit illustration of earth's 
'Hew man. He says : ''When I was a child, I spake 
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a 
child: but when I became a man, I put away child- 
ish things." This man Paul stands the peer of any 
that ever outgrew his childhood. Ever after the day 
he saw the light that smote him to the earth near 
Damascus city he was one of earth's new men. It 
was then that Paul began to realize what Christ meant 
when he said : ''Ye must be born again." Observa- 
tion and history prove that the men of the earth 
have always been too much disposed to carry child- 
ish disposition and manners with them unto gray 
hairs and to the grave. Earth's new man under the 
light that shines through Christ will, as Paul did, 
"put away childish things." 

Men will be "born again" when they are old or 
physically grown, and many a bewildered Nicodemus 
will open his eyes and see the moral phenomena of 
life and character, all pointing as index fingers to the 
doctrine of Christ, and proving that the earth has its 
new man. The state of the new man of the earth 
will be Hke the composed state of Abraham's mind 
when he said to Lot : "Let there be no strife, I pray 
thee, between me and thee, and between my herd- 
men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not 
the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray 
thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then 
I will go to the right ; or if thou depart to the right 
hand, then I will go to the left." 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 169 

Paul was a man whose mind dwelt in the wisdom 
and philosophy of his age. He defeated the Stoics 
and Epicureans at Athens, and almost unconsciously 
to them introduced Christ as their ''unknown God." 
He was able to meet the strongest philosophers of 
any theory. His mind was trained in metaphysical 
questions, and he was a close student of how the mind 
and animal naaire strove and made war in man. He 
went as deep into the philosophy of human nature 
and mind as the world stands to-day. Looking upon 
the natural man, who knows nothing of being ''born 
again,'' and giving full credit to reason, he says : ''I 
delight in the law of God after the inward man: but 
I see another law in my members, warring against 
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
to the law of sin which is in my members." Here 
he shows that the mind has not sufficient power to 
subject the animal nature. In other words, that if 
the mind is left alone in the contest the earth cannot 
produce the new man. He shows that the earth 
cannot produce the new man through the force of 
law. He takes one of earth's men, with his natural 
propensities, and places him under law. He sees 
that, while the law has not changed the disposition 
and nature of the man, it declares him a criminal for 
its violation, apprehends and punishes him. Yet the 
judgment of the mind is that the law is good not- 
withstanding. The mind conceives that it is the only 
way to have society and security in the earth, al- 
though it be itself a way of prison and death. Paul 
then shows how the natural man stands under the 
law. He lets him speak for himself in the first per- 
son. Hear his speech as bound under the law. Hear 



170 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

the contained acknowledgment that the law is good 
and his punishment righteous. 'Tor that which I do 
I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what 
I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, 
I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then 
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth 
no good thing: for to will is present with me; but 
how to perform that which is good I find not. For 
the good that I would Fdo not: but the evil which 
I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, 
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is 
present with me.'' 

This description of the natural propensities and 
contentions of the animal man and the warfare of 
the mind has never been excelled. It is a proposi- 
tion as to which shall rule the life of man, the judg- 
ment of the mind or the animal nature. Tempta- 
tion was never presented in a fairer light. When 
there is no law, the contest and rivalry exist. When 
there is law, the evil nature becomes excited to 
greater effort. While there is necessity for law, 
though it justly condemns to prison and death, the 
evil propensities rem.ain untamed. Such is man un- 
less he is made anew. Such is man as Christ saw him 
when he said to Nicodemus : *'Ye must be born 
again." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." 
Paul says : ''For I know that in me (that is, in my 
flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Does not the word 
"flesh" here include the whole man, even his spiritual 
attaintedness and death? If he were really a man in 
the full, living expression of spirit and mind, the war- 



PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. Ijt 

fare of animal propensities could give but little trou- 
ble. 

But the man whom Paul put under the law to 
speak in the first person now makes a survey of the 
whole field of unaided human effort. He looks upon 
the law, and finds it incapable of bringing relief. He 
looks upon all human resources, and finds nothing 
that can slay or drive away the annoying propensi- 
ties of animal nature. He finds that mind itself, 
though giving judgment against them, is incapable. 
When he can flee to nothing on earth for help, in the 
hour of distress and approaching despair he cries out : 
''O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" In the stillness of the hour 
a voice is heard that the earth can have a new man. 
It is contained in these words : ''Ye must be born again/' 
The man then, recognizing the power of the voice, 
sees that his only chance is to be born out of his trou- 
ble, and exclaims in the ecstasy of his soul : ''I thank 
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." ''Eureka/' 



CHAPTER IV. 
Causation. 

Causes Secondary, 

I. Since the days of Aristotle causation has been a 
constant and interesting subject of inquiry among 
philosophers. That progress has been made is true, 
yet it must be confessed that much doubt remains. 
Among the evils that have hindered progress and con- 
fused the understanding, it v^ill be assumed that too 
many things have been taken and treated as causes. 
Some things have been treated as causes which, under 
the scrutiny of strict reasoning, lose all the aspects of 
the nature of cause. The error that has almost uni- 
formly been committed, as it seems, has been a lack 
of perception or a lack of acknov^ledgment that it is 
the nature of cause not only to initiate but tO' remain 
constant in the evolution tov^ard production until the 
effect stands substantially a thing itself. In the nature 
of cause the idea of compound leverage is too easily 
omitted. With the thought and judgment placed in 
this direction, it may easily be seen that things which 
have intruded under the name of causes are no causes 
at all, but simply a line of effects. There is to be made, 
or ought to be made, a distinction between cause and 
the details which the cause itself really and constantly 
occupies. In a £nal sense, whatever may be said 
about intervening causes before the effect stands, there 
exists but one purpose, and it a continued purpose, until 
the effect of the purpose is produced. But more of this 
in another place. Let. definitions be first in order. 



CAUSATION. 



73 



Webster says : ^^ Cause is that which produces or ef- 
fects a result ; that from which anything proceeds, and 
without which it could not exist/' Locke says : 
^'Cause is a substance exerting its power into act, to 
make one thing begin to be/' Monboddo says : ''The 
general idea of cause is that without which another 
thing called the effect cannot be/' 

The aboive definitions might be multiplied almost 
ad infinitum. But these are enough, and they are in 
harmony. Others would also be in harmony. It is 
seen that a cause implies an effect, even as an effect im- 
plies a cause. An uneffecting cause is no cause at all. 
Nothing can be regarded as a cause except as an effect 
appeals to it as its author. An effect has no claim to 
being called a cause, whatever its quality or capacity, 
until it can show something of self-origination. 

But referring again to Aristotle, and continuing the 
definition of cause in the sense that he made divisions 
of it, there is ground for stating that philosophers have 
made no progress at all, for they to this day are prone 
to accept the divisions Aristotle made as axiomatic, 
and they stand therefore, so far as divisions are con- 
cerned in his philosophic shoes. But what are the 
divisions made by Aristotle? They are these: The 
material^ eiHcienf, formal, and final causes. If it be 
allowed to make an illustration of this division of 
causes in a physical sense, reference is made to the pyra- 
mid Cheops. The stone is the material cause of the 
pyramid. The laborers are the efficient cause. The 
architect who had a plan in his mind is the formal 
cause. Cheops himself, who had a design or purpose, 
is the final cause. 

To speak it plainly, Cheops himself was the cause of 



174 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

the pyramid which bears his name to this day. It is 
not necessary to place the adjective final before his 
name, for he was intelligent, a king, and had author- 
ity and power to build the pyramid. It was his con- 
ception. Whether he called in the wisdom of counsel- 
lors or not is immaterial.- Whether he did all the work 
himself or not, it matters not. It was Cheops as a 
cause and force from base to finish. The detailed 
work may be called causes if any one so wishes, but 
nevertheless all secondary and commanded. Wher- 
ever the name and authority of Cheops does not appear, 
nothing is done. He is the spirit that moves and 
dwells in every stone and shovel of mortar. He had 
formed the purpose to build himself a tomb. The 
purpose needed only to be executed. If it had been a 
small matter, his own spirit and mind could have 
brought his own material hands into operation and he 
could have done the -work himself. But it was a great 
task, and he commanded the men of his country. But 
it is all the same so far as the cause appears. The 
stone lay in the quarries waiting. Skillful architects 
and artisans stood round waiting for the word of 
command. Herds of laborers were ready to go and 
perform their tasks. Even as the body of Cheops was 
subject to his own will, so were all of these. He moved 
them by his will even as he moved his own body. 

Now in the work of building this pyramid let it be 
made appear what relation the four causes of Aristotle 
sustain, or whether or not they may not all be resolved 
into one cause, a cause, simply Cheops without any 
defining adjective. Touching the specific work of 
building the pyramid, Cheops may be called the intel- 
ligent first cause; for while there was a first cause as 



CAUSATION. 175 

a beginning for all things, and that first cause contin- 
ually exists and runs through all; so in a secondary 
sense there is a first cause for each particular thing, 
and it runs through that particular thing unto its finish. 
The difference is, a first cause primary never ceases, 
whereas a first cause secondary ends with a particular 
effect, as in the building of the pyramid. 

If there had been no stone in the quarries, if there 
had been no skilled architects and artisans, if there 
had been no people as laborers subject to the authority 
of Cheops, the whole matter of building the pyramid 
is absurd. For in matters that cannot be there can- 
not be a conception of cause any more than a con- 
ception of effect. Cause and effect are an interwoven 
web. But some one might say that if there was no 
stone Cheops might have built his tomb of brick. 
That is true, but at the same time nothing is effected 
concerning cause. All that appears is a change oi 
material that makes the pyramid possible. As to that 
matter, it might have been built of wood. 

Having assumed that Cheops held the place of first 
cause in the specific work of building the pyramid that 
bears his name, it is equally well to assume that he 
was an intelligent and powerful cause concerning this 
particular thing. This is what Aristotle called final 
cause. If there is any other cause in the construction 
of the pyramid, it is hard of perception ; for Cheops 
himself could not have held the place of cause unless 
all else had been possible. An intelligent cause sur- 
veys the field of possibility. There can be no purpose 
out of the range of possibility except with a madman. 
When a first, which is also a final, cause has a con- 
ception and purpose of an effect, nothing stands in its 



1 7^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

way, nothing can be regarded as other cause in the 
matter, for every other thing is brought into subordi- 
nation and is made to contribute toward producing 
the effect. 

Now, so far an illustration has been used and 
cause has been treated in its material embodiment — 
Cheops the cause and the pyramid the effect. This king 
stood tangibly before architects and laborers. In 
tangible sense he was the cause, the one power and 
authority. The real cause, however, lies hidden in the 
territory of metaphysics. The living, material body 
of Cheops could only reflect, manifest, and declare its 
existence. It lies out in that unseen and unexplored 
metaphysical territory, and occupies the same place 
from which Cheops obtained his personal power to 
walk, raise an arm, or move any member of his body. 
The real cause of the pyramid was the invisible spirit, 
mind, and will within Cheops. The purpose, power, 
and authority of these were reflected in his body. 
These as a real cause laid hands on the stone in the 
mountains, hauled them and put them in place in the 
valley of the Nile. There is recognition of things ex- 
isting between, some seen and others unseen, yet 
whether apprehended or unapprehended the produc- 
tion of a cause appeared and stands unto this day on 
the plains of Egypt. 

Cause is a recognition unseen, a power felt, a sub- 
stance acknowledged, a spirit that lives^ a mind that 
conceives, an intelligence that understands, and a will 
that commands and forces — all hidden from the 
human eye, but not from the understanding. Phenom- 
ena are the book of reference that leads the thought into 
the field of causes. But .when the phenomena are dis- 



CAUSATION. 177 

missed the field looks mysterious and bare, yet in all 
this apparent nakedness the thought cannot help but 
explore, for the mind recognizes that something is 
there. This has been the way of exploring and chas- 
ing from ancient days till now. All things appear to 
remain perpetually the same so far as related to dis- 
covery. Why is such the condition? It is man hunt- 
ing for himself and unable to find out how he has life, 
mind, and will, how he can be a cause, and yet recog- 
nizing that he himself is only an effect. 

Man is the most lost, the most perplexing problem, 
the greatest mystery to himself of all things in the 
universe. His kind everywhere are crying out with 
Burns: ''O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us, to see 
oursels.'' But the power has never come, or at least 
if it has come it is not universally acknowledged. In 
both unrest and ambition, trusting to his own powers, 
ever refusing to acknowledge perpetual inability, he 
remiains in constant effort to attain the end, find him- 
self, what he is and who he is. Sometimes he almost 
grows ecstatically rapturous over discovery, when the 
wisdom of another generation, though it may be equal- 
ly unable to advance, yet nevertheless is able to dis- 
prove the so-called discovery and fraud practiced 
upon science. 

11. The causal nexus. It has been assumed in an- 
other chapter that the spirit or mind of man could have 
no connection with matter as a thing of observation, 
or perceive it, or in any way influence and control it, 
except as an exquisite frame or body was constructed 
giving adaptation to the mind, and to be used as a 
medium of connection. Now this appears so probable 
that it may be conceived that the connection is made in 
12 



17S MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

this way : The human material body is so wonderfully, 
mysteriously, and artistically arranged that it is the 
only way that the invisible mind of man is enabled to 
be connected with matter, to perceive and use it. If 
this — which seems so probable — be true, it is easily ap- 
prehended how there is an existing influence or pow- 
er between cause and effect, or an unseen influence or 
motion of cause working into and upon the effect. 
Yet it would be hard to conceive that this intervening 
substance, influence, or power could be anything other 
than the mind itself. But if it be true that man's spirit 
and mind do not need to be clothed in a frame, such 
||i as the human body, in order to perceive matter and 

have influence over it, nevertheless the connection be- 
tween mind and matter positively exists, whatever may 
be the difficulties of tracing the connection. If this be 

iii not true, then the whole idea of cause must be aban- 

II ♦ • 

!' doned, which is a most preposterous and shuddering 

thought. 

Among those who have attempted to discourse on 
metaphysics, David Hume was the first to call atten- 
tion to the connected relation between cause and ef- 
fect. He denied that such a relation exists, and there- 
fore denied the existence of cause, for the reason that, 
in his opinion, there was nothing that could be proven 
to be the effect or production of some other existing 
thing. This was a very broad sweep of skepticism, and 
could have conception only in the mind of an absolute 
materialist. In his denial he attempted to throw the 
burden of proof on all believers in cause and effect; 
and not only this, but have them prove what the world 
has never attempted because impossible. The intelli- 
gent world, as a rule, do not regard it absolutely nee- 



CAUSATION. 179 

essary to trace the relation that exists between a cause 
and its effect in order to be convinced that effects are 
produced by causes. All that lies antecedent to phe- 
nomena is cause, is spirit, mind, and something of in- 
fluence from them. It is all hidden in metaphysics, 
and is often rendered more obscure by metaphysical di- 
visions and questions. 

Referring particularly to Mr. Hume, it may be 
stated that it is one thing to deny the ability of man to 
see and know, to perceive and trace, but quite another 
to deny the substance and principle which he would see 
and know, and which seems necessarily to have an 
existence. Now, by way of illustration, let it be al- 
lowed that there exists such a thing as a material 
cause. For instance, a cannon ball dropping of itself 
from different heights upon the same object, it will 
show different degrees of effect on that object. All 
this is plain enough, and the relation between cause 
and effect is easily traceable. 

But when there is introduced the case of a man us- 
ing his will, as bending his knee, raising an arm, or 
pointing the finger, the related connection of cause and 
motion appears very mysterious and incomprehensi- 
ble. Here the hand and finger are put in motion which 
they did not originate. If not, then the motion must 
have been caused by something from within. And if 
caused, then caused by what? A man looking on his 
finger or arm can trace no connection between them 
and the cause. He is conscious of a thought to raise 
his arm^ and he has consciousness and memory that 
the arm was lifted. He knows that he had a will to 
lift his arm. Yet he has no consciousness of that sub- 
stance or power by which the arm was raised. 



l8o MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

Now which ^seems most to become a man of reason, 
to deny the existence of cause on the ground of the 
difficulty in tracing the causal nexvis, or to allow that 
there really exists cause, notwithstanding the imper- 
ceptibleness of the relation between it and the pro- 
duced effect? Continuing the comparison, it may be 
stated that no one will deny the observed relation be- 
tween the cannon ball and the different results pro- 
duced. If any one who did not witness the experiment 
should be shown the object on which the ball fell, he 
could easily distinguish between the greater and the 
less collision. So the arm may be moved by greater 
or less force, and when made to strike any material 
thing will show dift'erent results. 

But the question resolves itself into one of percep- 
tion and nonperception, which proves nothing. The 
phenomena of effect are perceived because they are the 
phenomena of matter in some form. Both the connect- 
ed relation which the effect bears to the mind and 
will, and the very mind and will themselves, are un- 
perceived because they belong to the unseen, meta- 
physical world. A philosopher generally floats on the 
highest tide of reason. When he witnesses phenomena 
in materiality, and he can give no fair account for it 
on the basis of matter, and shows his content by refer- 
ring it to some imaginary law or condition of matter as 
an apology, he either willfully or ignorantly forfeits 
his higher claim, and drops himself into the category of 
the most opaque materialistic skepticism. Mr. Hume 
did this thing — not on the ground that, as an honest 
inquirer after truth, he called attention to the relation 
between cause and effect, but on the ground that he 



CAUSATION. l8l 

attempted a destruction of cause without being able to 
offer a sine qua non. 

III. The nature of cause. There is contained in the 
nature of cause the idea of an ancestral relation. Noth- 
ing can be held as a cause until it is known to produce 
something. Hence its relation of fatherhood and 
motherhood in regard to the things it produces. 
Therefore the thing descended from a cause may itself 
be a cause of another thing. Thus a web of relation- 
ship may be woven in the transmutation of things ad 
infinitum, even until the mind has before it an unsolv- 
able problem to trace the connection and establish the 
true genealogical table. If it may be allowed to so 
express it, the blood of an ancestral cause runs through 
many generations of subsequents. There may intrude 
tints of coloring and a hundred features of unlikeness, 
which would in themselves deny some remote ances- 
tral cause ; yet the blood is still in all the subsequents. 

Things appear sometimes very strange to human 
eyes and embarrass the understanding, even in the 
propagation of species. Take, for instance, the mixing 
of Anglo-Saxon and Indian blood as a cause. The 
children show the mixed blood so perceptibly that there 
is no doubt about the cause. These after children mix 
only with the Saxon race. 'And thus generations 
pass until the trace of Indian blood seems lost, and the 
knowledge of an ancestral mixing is forgotten. But by 
and by there appears one who looks like an Indian. 
This is sometimes called lusus naturce. But in truth 
it is not. It is simply an unusual outcropping of an- 
cestral blood, and stands as a proof that the principle 
of a cause runs through the whole line of productions in 
which some ancient or ancestral cause holds a relation. 



1 82 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

This is proof that a cause that has produced one 
thing is not to be regarded as simply related to the ef- 
fect immediately nearest to it, but that it permeates and 
influences through all the generation of effects that 
follow. But this is looking at cause in the nature of 
self-acting agencies. It may be well to look at cause 
apart from any self-acting agency, if it be possible 
that such agencies as causes have existence. 

Thousands of people, as sight-seers, visit the valley 
of the Nile annually. They go to see something. Say 
it is the pyramid Cheops. They go under the in- 
fluence of cause. They have minds of their own. The 
pyramid stands the attraction of the ages. King Cheops, 
who built it, stands far in the distant past almost for- 
gotten. But the people go to see this chief thing in the 
wonderland of the Nile. Now the cause of their go- 
ing must exist in their own minds, in the pyramid, in 
the distant King Cheops, or else in a divided cause. 
Then let the mind go in search of that cause. The 
pyramid stands. It is the remaining production or ef^ 
feet of the mind, will, and power of the ancient king. 
Did it not stand, the thousands would not flock to the 
Nile. The fact of its existence awakes thought of 
traveling. Its very existence in common idea, causes 
people to travel, go to it, look upon it and be satisfied. 
But at this point we come to the definition of cause. 
Webster says : ^'Cause is that which produces or ef- 
fects a result ; that from which anything proceeds, and 
without which it would not exist." But here is a great 
chain of results, seemingly an endless line of effects, 
and a thousand things brought forward as an influence 
with causes apparent or real near to each. Yet in the 
midst of all one truth remains uncovered — and that is. 



CAUSATION. 183 

if Cheops had not been a cause none of these would have 
followed, none of them would have been. He is there- 
fore the ancient ancestral cause of them all. In the na- 
ture of cause he is the first in all that appertain to the 
pyramid, whether is taken into account its building or 
the influences that congregate people around it for the 
purpose of looking upon it. Many other things may be 
regarded as causes, and whoever grants that they are, 
they must nevertheless be classed of a secondary nature 
in their relation to Cheops. 

It is the nature of cause to be perpetual. Really it 
appears to be an undying principle. It is associated 
with every effect or thing of its production. The es- 
sence of it permeates through the whole range of prop- 
agation, from first to last. In its nature it seems 
scarcely subject to more than two classifications: a 
great First Cause, and first causes secondary. A great 
First Cause, Author of all, over all, through all, and in 
all; a first cause, secondary, that permeates and runs 
through any particular line of effects and most certain- 
ly dwells in them. 

IV. Cause traced in its relation to the growth of 
things. When the mind of man goes out into the midst 
of this so common but most mysterious of things, it 
perceives at once that, if it is enabled to make any new 
discovery, the accidental is as likely to figure in it as 
any course of pure reasoning. But since the acciden- 
tal IS most likely to appear when the mind labors, the 
task is cheerfully but diffidently undertaken to trace 
the source of cause in growth and the manner in which 
this strangest of mechanism is operated in producing 
the million of forms that dwell in the earth. 

Perhaps there is nothing material that does not grow 



184 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

in the sense of increasing its magnitude until it either 
can find no substance or else has lost its power to apply 
the hand that makes the increase. But in any sense, it 
is considered there is a limit. The earth itself grows 
in the sense of increasing its magnitude, and will con- 
tinue to increase by the force of gravity as long as the 
uncondensed matter of space comes within the range 
of its influence. But this kind of increase is not difficult 
in the understanding, for in it there is no perceptible 
life or self-action, but only the globular arrangement of 
dead matter under a universal force called gravity. 

But the object in view is to consider growth among 
the living things ; and what is meant by living things is 
to consider things of the earth in which or about which 
there is exhibited a nature of self-action. This em- 
braces a large field — in the animal kingdom from man, 
to the lowest ; in the vegetable kingdom from the great 
redwood trees of California to the humblest moss ap- 
pearance of the Mammoth Cave; in the mineral king- 
dom all forms that come and go, as is so natural with 
the other kingdoms. But in this latter kingdom it 
should be observed that certain things of growth are 
age-lasting, because of the difficulty of reaching situ- 
ations and conditions of destructiveness. Nevertheless, 
as certainly as there were conditions that produced 
growth, there are likewise possible conditions that will 
not only check growth, as many of these already show, 
but will absolutely destroy the forms themselves. 

Before advancing further it seems proper to intro- 
duce Mr. Herbert Spencer's definition, or the expressed 
idea he obtained, of the perpetual existence Oif living 
material forms. Referring to these, he says : "Perfect 
correspondence would be perfect life. Were there no 



CAUSATION. 185 

changes in the environment but such as the organism 
had adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail 
in the efficiency with which it met them, there would be 
eternal existence and eternal knowledge." 

In this philosophical expression of perpetual life by 
Mr. Spencer he seemed to overlook one thing that sus- 
tains a very near relation, and which should have been 
noticed by him in this connection. Now the power to 
live and the power to grow are so interwoven that they 
not only coexist but seem to be correlated in principle. 
A thing grows, but finally ceases to grow. This it will 
do without a change in environment, and it does this 
thing often under the most embarrassing conditions. 
What does it signify? Not a change in environment, 
of course, but a change in the efficiency of the organism. 
Environment may exist perpetually the same, yet the 
infant finally reaches old age and dies. Between the 
stages the environment that existed throughout the 
period of growth continues, and why does not growth 
continue ? It is said the life of the organism continues. 
But is that true any more than that the growth con- 
tinues ? 

Things that grow and live, whatever the environment 
and whatever the possible efficiency of changed adapta- 
tion to meet either a changing or a constant environ- 
ment, reach a stage in w^hich growth stops so far as 
magnitude is concerned, and the life or force that gave 
the growth proportionately abates, or else is only suf- 
ficiently exercised to make weaker and yet weaker re- 
pairs for that which comes of waste. Indeed, in ma- 
terial organisms, according to Mr. Spencer's idea, there 
would no more be a perpetual or eternal life than there 
would be a perpetual growth. Should such be the con- 



i86 



MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



dition, the earth would soon be filled with living things 
of mammoth size. 

But life and growth go together so far as the material 
organism is concerned. It may be a growth increasing 
the size of an organism, in which also any necessary re- 
pairs are made, or it may be merely a giving and ap- 
plying the necessary supplies for waste. It is such a 
fixed condition of all living organisms that, however 
honorable it is to go in search of the unattainable and 
to use the reason to all possible^ endurance, yet after all 
many of its forged theories taste a speck of the imagi- 
nation. 

But coming more particularly to growth, its cause, 
and how applied, it is proper to repeat here that in an- 
other chapter it is assumed that matter is incidental in 
the universe, and may as incidentally in the transmu- 
tation of things cease to be ; not that the principle of it 
would cease to be, for matter in its principal state 
may have had energy, or may have possessed the power 
of a cause along with other forces. Matter is now 
pronounced dead, and therefore without force and un- 
able to be a cause of anything. But what is meant by 
the principle of matter is the substance out of which it 
was evolved and into which it may again be resolved. 
This does not signify, however, that physical atoms 
exist in the principle of matter, such as are conceived 
in physical science, yet that the principle substantially 
contains all that is substantially contained in matter, 
but in a different and inconceivable arrangement. 

The principle of growth contains in it the suggestion 
that either the whole of the principle of matter is not 
yet turned into matter, or else some matter is continu- 
ally being resolved back into its principle. This brings 



CAUSATION. 1 87 

the mind to stand at the open door of that mystery 
called growth. And here it is assumed that growth has 
but little if anything to do with matter, but with the 
principle of it ; that growth dwells in the realm of mat- 
ter's principle, and not in matter itself. They may be 
both together, yet only one is seen ; but when the func- 
tion of growth is performed an object of matter is seen, 
a new organism. 

The case may be stated this way : When there was no 
materiality there came materiality ; when there was no 
physical universe there came a physical universe. Al- 
luding to the physical universe, it is said on high au- 
thority that God made it. If it should be affirmed that 
God not only made, constructed the universe, but also 
that he made the material out of which the universe was 
built and arranged, it makes little difference, for all this 
can easily be allowed. This leaves no ground on that 
line of thinking, and shifts the argument — if further 
argument be necessary — to the ground of God's manner 
of building the universe out of the material of his own 
creation. For because matter exists in its present form, 
it gives no proof that the present form is the first and 
only step toward its existence. 

Assuming then that the principle of matter as an 
antedating creation existed before matter itself, and 
still further assuming that the principle of matter has 
not altogether gone into matter, or that as it is neces- 
sary matter is resolved back to its principle, it may be 
perceived how that a feature of creation or the build- 
ing of organisms through growth still exists. This 
process of building, growing, increasing the magni- 
tude and giving the different forms from the cradle of 
things to the most stalwart, is a process that draws 



1 88 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

upon the principle of matter and not upon matter it- 
self. Matter is too coarse in its composition, in any 
sense that it can be put under view, to enter into the re- 
fined process of growth. It needs to be put through 
the crucible that distills it and in an unseen way resolves 
it into its principle, and then it stands ready to enter 
into the growing process. 

There is a power, a force that applies the substance 
of growth. Whatever it is, it may be called the cause 
of growth. It is one thing, not many, in each organ- 
ism. In every distinct living organism there must 
dwell a self-acting agency. This agency must be the 
cause of its growth. Everything after its kind, and 
everything has its own hand and trowel. They can be 
used by it and by no one else. This self-acting agency 
builds its own house. It entered on this process at the 
beginning of its individuality. It is not conscious of 
the work it does and raises no question, but the work of 
growing is constant. It reaches no uncertain hand out 
into that refined substance, the principle of matter, but 
takes hold of the right thing and applies it, and there is 
growth. The unseen life or force takes hold of the 
unseen and builds the visible body. ''AH flesh is not the 
same flesh/^ All things composed of matter are not the 
same kind of matter. Each individuality in self-pos- 
session and in cunning wisdom understands its busi- 
ness, and, reaching out into the principle of matter, con- 
structs its own organism of matter; so that ''things 
which are seen are not made of things which appear." 
Growing is the process of reaching out into the unseen, 
gathering and building into the visible. 

Not even an intelligent being Is conscious of his 
growing. He is conscious only of the fact that he does 



CAUSATION. 189 

grow. The growing process is too refined and too 
metaphysical for the discernment or consciousness 
that works through a material body. It is the work of 
an immaterial life or force. A man would have to see 
the material applied in order to have consciousness and 
knowledge of the process of growing. But this would be 
a work of matter and not the work that deals with the 
invisible principle that, like unto a new creation, is 
turning out the millions of material forms constantly 
appearing. 

Recognizing that it is impossible to dismiss cause 
from the beginning of things, and recognizing further- 
more that the beginning cause, however intricate and 
however obscure the web of connection may appear, 
has a connection nevertheless with all that has fol- 
lowed, and has an influence positive and immediate or 
else delegated to the individualities that construct their 
own material forms, there is seen a mechanism continu- 
ally going on high above instinct and human reason. 
It is the process of growth. It makes no mistakes. It 
is a process of perfection. In it is a life action that 
knows how to apply its own peculiar hands, on what to 
seize and how to construct, and with a precision a 
thousandfold beyond the honeybee. 

The cause to be recognized is the self-acting life or 
agency that builds for itself a material body. It would 
seem to partake of the nature of materialism should it 
not be declared this cause is of a limited and secondary 
class. It cannot, so to speak, build a city. It can build 
only its own house. It is an individuality. Anything 
that can possibly spring from it endowed with a grow- 
ing process is but another individuality possessed of the 



190 MATTER;, MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

same power of cause. But it is said this cause is sec- 
ondary. It is so declared because it has a relation to 
that Soiirce which produced the first of this or any 
kind of things. 

When growth is held in the contemplation, when 
man sufficiently possesses his soul to take time to look 
upon this strange and peculiar process of creation that 
is constantly going on in all the earth, when he beholds 
how things are made and unmade, when his thought 
dips down into that mysterious and invisible territory 
where the work of growth, or a creation of new organ- 
isms, is constantly carried on, and there recognizes 
that an unseen hand lays hold upon the invisible prin- 
ciple of matter, and with his own power of transmuta- 
tion constructs the material form of a crystal, a tree, an 
ox, or a man, he feels such a recoil and retroaction in 
his soul that he would uncover his head in recognition 
of universal beauty, power, and mystery, and cry out : 
"Surely the spot on which I stand is holy ground." 

V. Cause traced in its relation to the eruption of 
Mount Pelee and the Galveston storm. Here the 
thought approaches fire, wind, electricity, and much 
besides that is mysterious. It is not enough to say that 
running lava and falling cinder in the one instance de- 
stroyed a great city, and that wind and wave destroyed 
another. These are but the presented phenomena 
which cause brings into the account. They hold them- 
selves out before the eyes, and the understanding is 
satisfied with these material phenomena and all that they 
produced. But behind wind and running lava there is 
a profounder ancestral cause that reaches back in un- 
seen and mysterious territory where the mind of man 



CAUSATION. ^191 

moves slowly and feels at every step of penetration a 
constant need of assistance. 

It should never be forgotten in the pursuit of causes 
that an ancestral cause secondary or, as it may be ex- 
pressed, a first cause in the lines of effects of any par- 
ticular thing remains constant, though often obscure, 
in all the productions of that particular beginning. 
However much other things may be commingled with it 
and its hne of effects and tend to obscure the sense of 
it, nevertheless it would be hard to prove, in any in- 
stance, that the influence of it is altogether wasted. 
Granting this principle to be true in the nature of 
causes secondary, may it not then be declared, with the 
same reasonable conclusion, that it should not be for- 
gotten in the pursuit of causes that the first cause pri- 
mary, the originator, the creator of the first thing, is a 
constant force of influence in all the subsequents of 
that particular thing? And if in one thing, therefore 
in every particular thing of his origination. So then 
when the first causes secondary are held in contrast 
with the first cause primary, it may be discerned that, 
while the secondary causes are constant through their 
particular line of effects, it is but the exercise of a dele- 
gated power in imiversal arrangement ; nor does it dis- 
prove the presence of the great first cause. For if a 
first cause secondary is both present and constant in 
its particular line of effects, the first cause primary 
must be both present and constant in the line of effects 
of every particularly appearing thing of his origination. 
Thus it may be discerned how causes may be con- 
tained within a cause, a secondary in the primary. 

But it may be stated, except for a delegated free will 
among intelligent beings, there is little reason to doubt 



19^ MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

that the utmost harmony would exist between the first 
cause primary and all secondary causes. Hence a dele- 
gated free will among secondary causes, asserting its 
power and attempting to dismiss the influence and 
agency of a first cause primary, is constantly leading 
to thousands of interruptions, and holds even the intel- 
ligent world away from the Elysian fields of harmony. 
Because of this the storms of human wrath sweep 
away cities and make blood run as lava from the moun- 
tains. 

It would not be good for man to live in a world where 
everything is in harmony except himself. In view of 
his moral status, it is best that the earth be as it is. He 
needs to see disaster and ruin spring from another 
source than himself. They are educational. He is more 
pliable to their touch and influence. In them are no 
hate and madness that make against man's culture. 
But in the storms and earthquakes of his own making 
there runs too deep a vein of malice and enmity to al- 
low of his moral improvement, or even to think of that 
harmony that comes of subjecting his own will to that 
of the great cause primary. 

But it has been assumed that a cause proper is a 
self-acting agency, a thing in comparison with all oth- 
er that has some kind of life. The things of the uni- 
verse are things of life or nonlife. There can be no 
other conception. Things without life are helpless. A 
thing conceived of life and helpless is nonlife. It is 
subject to the action of living things without showing 
signs of resistance. All motion comes of life, and not 
life of motion. A living agent produces ; the nonliving 
or helpless can produce nothing. But it is a hard search 
to find the dividing line between the living and the non- 



CAUSATION. 193 

living. It crosses from the animal into the vegetable 
kingdom. Nor does it stop here. It crosses again into 
the mineral. Forces are at v^ork there, and it is hard 
to disconnect these forces altogether from some kind of 
living agency. It may nqt be a living agency that has 
in every instance reason and consciousness; neverthe- 
less it does the work. It presents the physical change 
and phenomena in proof of its existence. It cannot 
show its hand or face, but it can show a truth — the 
truth of its existence. It gives testimony through its 
work. Reason teaches that a dead thing could not have 
done the work. To affirm such a thing is to declare the 
dead thing to be an active agent and therefore living, 
which is contrary to all reason and truth. 

What faculties any particular life possesses beyond 
the phenomena it presents cannot be known. Man can- 
not intelligently walk the fields behind the phenomena. 
He can only declare that an agency exists that wrought 
the work. He is able to attribute to it life, power, and 
faculties equal to the work presented. But to hold in 
question what it could otherwise do is speculation. To 
hold in question whether it had exhausted its power, 
weakened it or increased it, is profitless. To hold in 
question whether it is a life age-abiding or will some 
day perish in the evolution of things is fruitless. He 
can read the life only through the letters of its phe- 
nomena. 

With all that has been said, the task remains of tra- ^ 
cing the Galveston storm and the eruption of Mount 
Pelee to their true cause. They must, if it be possible 
to do so, be traced to some self-acting agency. But in 
doing this work there is confusion yet to be looked 
after. It is best in the first instance to set the eyes and 
13 



194 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

thought on two cities lying in ruins — Galveston by the 
storm and flood and St. Pierre by running lava, cinder, 
and stifling, poisonous air, and in the midst of all this 
wreck the ghastly remains of many thousands of human 
beings. The question first suggested is of a moral na- 
ture. Would the mountain have burned and the wind 
have blown as the}^ did had these cities not existed ? The 
probabilities, grounded in the fact that history of this 
kind has been repeating itself from time immemorial 
and before these cities were built, are that the eruption 
and wind would have been just as they were. So then 
the moral question which may be involved must be 
shifted to other grounds. The question is not one of 
moralizing on effects, but one oi search for the cause 
of the burning mountain and storm. The search must 
be made on the basis of an a posteriori argument. 

The wrecks are seen as results of storm and moun- 
tain eruption. But there must be a cause for the storm 
and the volcanic action. This is the point at which the 
scientific world becomes very voluble. They introduce 
nature and nature's laws. But these, after all that can 
be said, imply but little more than the condition of 
things ; a condition that produces events or phenomena. 
But is there not something involved in these things 
more than mere matter ? How can it be perceived that 
mere helpless matter is capable of such accomplish- 
ments? The mere matter itself must be in the hands 
of something that gives it all its motions. This in the 
first instance is called force. One way of illustration is 
in viewing the lava running down the mountain. It is a 
liquid and is in a race to get to the plain. It would seek 
its level and be at rest. It is in the hand of that force 
called gravity. If pent by some other force, it would 



CAUSATION. 195 

finally break the barriers and would suddenly produce 
disaster equal to the Johnstown flood. 

But it is allowed that force may be introduced as a 
cause for storm and volcanic action. What force, and 
whence came it? Whence the force that put the lava 
upon the top of the mountain, that took it out of the 
hand of gravity and then returned it again to the same 
hand that conducted it to the valley below? But the 
moving lava is a force and the wind is a force. So is a 
man's fist a force, but there is a power behind the fist 
that uses it as a club in a similar sense that it would use 
any other material club grasped in the hand. 

But then to account for the Galveston storm. The 
earth's surface under the sun's rays obtains different 
temperatures, causing heated air to rise, and other air, 
like lava in the hand of gravity running down the 
mountain, rushes to fill the void. That is all beautiful ; 
is not all theory, but contains a modicum of truth. But 
still there is something seriously unaccounted for if 
placed to rest solely on this principle. Why did not the 
air rush equally and uniformly from all directions and 
supply the void with better steadiness ? Why did it not 
supply the demand without so much hesitation until a 
disastrous storm was made necessary to bring the usual 
equilibrium and consequent calm? If the earth became 
hot under the sun's rays in a certain region, why did the 
storm go northward and not southward? If air was 
needed to cool the heated region as well as to supply 
the void, why was a demand made for the warmer air 
of the equator instead of the colder air of the north? 
Why was that right angle made in the track of the 
storm off the coast of Florida, bending it westward to 



19^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

Galveston; and another right angle made, bending it 
northward to Chicago and the lake region ? Why was 
it a storm of such length, such narrowness, and so tor- 
tuous? Why did it not blow direct to the heated re- 
gion? If there was such a long line of heated region, 
why did it wait for one line of storm ? 

There is nothing seen in ruined cities, running lava, 
volcanic action, and rushing, even cyclonic, winds, ex- 
cept the phenomena of a cause. A man may blow 
away his breath and wear his quill to the stilt about 
storm winds and volcanoes ; but his words, if not idle, 
amount to little else than discourses on phenomena. 
Things are too often called causes which are no more 
than a connected chain of dependent results. True 
causes belong to things of self-action. Whatever can 
be found of self-action in storm and volcanic ac- 
tion is the cause of these things. If nothing can be 
found of self-action connected with them, they are 
to be looked upon as phenomena with their causes 
unknown. 

But it has been assumed that the first cause primary 
is associated with every particular thing of his creation 
through the whole line of its effects ; and likewise that 
each first cause secondary is associated with the whole 
line of its effects. These are really the only kinds of 
causes, and the less Is contained In the greater. Where 
there is no appreciative secondary cause in anything, 
the great first cause Is there to be regarded alone, and 
all that appears is to be regarded as but the phenomena 
presented In the connected chain of his operation. 
Hence storm winds and volcanic action, being con- 
cerned with things Incapable of self-action and not con- 
ceivably placed In the hands of any secondary cause, 



CAUSATION. 197 

are left under the logic of reason in the hands of the 
great first cause. 

But since heat is so seriously associated with vol- 
canic action, it deserves a proper notice. It is not 
known whether heat is a naturally existing principle or 
an influence or something generated by motion. In an 
existing principle its nature is to rest in concealment. 
In this state, or In its condition of what is called latent 
heat, it is hard of discovery for lack of phenomena. 
Yet different substances hold different degrees of heat, 
measured by its specific gravity. If the nature of heat 
is concealment and rest, a cause must be admitted to 
provoke it into all its active association in volcanic ac- 
tion. If it IS generated through motion, a cause must 
be admitted to produce motion. In either case, since 
the human reason and thought are incapable of intro- 
ducing anything intermediary unless it presents the 
character of being an effect itself, the true cause is 
traced to the source which has the management of the 
whole bowels of the earth. It is the first cause that gave 
the mountain all beneath it — the earth itself. It is the 
cause that permeates, dwells in, and pursues to the end 
every particular thing of its origination, and the task 
in hand is not to be regarded greater than the task of 
origination. The volcanic action can have no cause ex- 
cept in one capable of self-action. If none such can be 
found this side of Him that originated the mountain 
and its bowels beneath, the human mind can find no rest 
except by placing the cause of Mount Pelee's eruption 
in the hand of that self-acting, all-powerful Being who 
is called God. 

Since it was stated that any moral question that may 
have a relation to the eruption of Mount Pelee and the 



19^ MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

Galvesto-n storm was shifted to other ground, it may be 
a fitting close to this chapter to speak a few words con- 
cerning it. It is very evident to all who watched re- 
sults on humanity that the storm and eruption were 
«:iducational to the whole world. The news was flashed 
over the wires of every continent, and the multitudes 
awaited anxiously for the full knowledge of these dis- 
asters. Sympathy and compassion that had, as noble 
virtues, become slack and dormant awoke anew, that 
hearts might feel and eyes might see the needs of 
human want. Indicating that not only the earth, but 
that also a higher source is interested in the moral cul- 
ture of man, that the virtuous principles, which are the 
noblest of all, should be kept alive and active. Hearts 
that had grown hard, cold, and indifferent were 
touched as never before. Voluntary contributions of 
expressed sympathy and of material aid came not only 
from Washington, London, and Berlin, but from ev- 
erywhere, for all races of humanity were touched by 
the desolation wrought in the earth. It was education- 
al to the moral side of humanity. It taught humanity 
the imminent danger of all, and that, standing in the 
midst of danger, all should feel the pulse of a universal 
brotherhood. 

But in order to produce this effect on humanity, that 
there should be such visitation on the innocent or upon 
those no m_ore guilty than others is a hard question. It 
may be that the whole people of the earth deserved such 
a fate, and that these, and other disasters like them, 
came as a warning, that only a few out of many guilty 
meet with a sad fate unwarned, or if admonished it is 
unheeded. But again, unless human life had been in- 
volved, nothing of the nature of a moral question could 



CAUSATION. 199 

be associated with it. Nothing of a moral nature was 
ever or could be associated with the storms that swept 
Galveston coast before it was inhabited, nor upon the 
island site of St. Pierre before human inhabitants were 
there. There must be distress in human life before 
moral questions can be attached to the desolation 
wrought by storm, flood, and volcanic action. In what- 
ever light moral questions are associated with the 
desolation wrought by nature, they are smothered in 
the same mysteriousness that caused the disaster. 
They all alike may be attributed to the same cause. 
But what conditions in either or in both induced a self- 
acting agency, a cause when it was in its power not to 
act, are hard to discern. 



CHAPTER V. 
Cause. 

Cause Primary. 

The £rst cause as an idea in the human mind, as the 
result of thinking, as revealed through the phenomena 
of nature, or as directly revealed by the cause himself, 
is both the most interesting and most awe-producing 
subject m.an has ever held in contemplation. At the 
very threshold of such acquaintance and presence man 
feels a tremulousness inspired by reverent fear. Both 
with the man of faith and the skeptic, whether the first 
cause be regarded as the God whose moral character is 
revealed in the Bible or regarded as simply some kind 
of force, they are alike seized with similar feelings of 
respect and reverence. It is unavoidable. The mind 
cannot abate it, for it is standing in the presence of 
that mighty something which, if it had never acted, the 
physical universe and all that is unknowable could nev- 
er have been. Hence it is with conscious reverence that 
any man would dare to introduce even his mind-pres- 
ence into the most sacred and holy place in the uni- 
verse. 

But the task is set to look after the first cause, a task 
that would for a moment disregard the Bible and all 
other books and teachings except as ideas of their reve- 
lation may come up in the course of reasoning. There 
are but two modes of making an argument for the first 
cause : the a priori and the a posteriori. In these argu- 
ments there are two termini : the end or present stage 
(200) 



CAUSE. 20I 

to which existent things have advanced, and the un- 
originated condition of the universe. The a priori ar- 
gument would begin at the latter of these termini, and 
the a posteriori argument would begin with the first. 
They both travel the same highway, but in opposite di- 
rections. Each is equally limited in its sphere of legiti- 
mate thought, each is held within the compass of the two 
termini, the stage that existences have now reached and 
the unoriginated condition of the universe. The mind 
may dwell upon what it conceives was first originated 
as it sees it or perceives it through phenomena, but to 
go into the anterior field of the unmade universe it is 
as incapable of a proper survey of the conditions as it 
is to measure eternity itself. The edge of that territory 
is where all arguments meet and where all must stop. 
All that ever come out of it must come by the will and 
consent of what lived, dwelled, and acted then, or 
else a mere suspected condition as revealed through 
the phenomena of matter. 

I. The a priori argument. There must have been 
an uncreated condition before there was a created con- 
dition, an eternity before there was time in eternity. 
Not to allow this places the mind in a wilderness out of 
which it cannot find itself. Not to allow this puts the 
thought to the necessity of establishing an eternal re- 
gressive infinity, the end of which is beyond all con- 
ception and contrary to all reason. Things that exist 
cannot be regarded otherwise than pendent. A support 
mxust exist somewhere for each particular thing, and 
likewise there must be a support for the whole. This 
kind of conception, in the contemplation of existences, is 
the only source in which the mind can find rest. But 
if the universe is constructed in the idea of an endless 



202 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

regression, all things are pendent and all things equally 
support, which amounts to saying that there is neither 
support nor pendency in all the world. This would 
leave the universe a thing of random arrangement. But 
the wonder would rise why the existing and unaccount- 
able order and precision. 

Unrelated to any kind of phenomena, the human 
mind would be likely to conceive all manner of contra- 
dictory conditions of the unoriginated universe, if in- 
deed it would be capable of conception at all. It could 
hardly help but consider itself a part of that condition. 
Its assurance that it is no part of that condition origi- 
nates in the ground that to set up such a claim for itself 
would place both it and all things of connected associ- 
ation in the field of the unoriginated. This would be a 
severe jolt to the understanding, since it would lead to 
the idea that the . unoriginated condition was not dis- 
tinctly different from that which is now. Such an idea 
would be one of the greatest confusion. It would deny 
the certainty of a beginning point for things which now 
appear, establish the infinity of regression, and intro- 
duce tenfold more and harder questions than to allow 
that in eternity there was an unoriginated condition out 
of which there is a date, though uncomputed, when 
present existences began to appear. 

The fact of the unoriginated condition is one thing, 
and the character of it is quite another thing. For the 
present, only the fact that there was such a condition 
is under consideration. It is true that the mind is un- 
able to hold such a condition in its compass, reason 
about it, count time about it, or offer any reasons why 
such did exist. Yet the mind is equally unable to per- 



CAUSE. 203 

ceive the consistency of things and find rest without 
such an acknowledgment. 

Therefore to satisfy the human mind it must be con- 
fessed that there exists in the universe a something 
that was not made; the original without which noth- 
ing could appear; a cause the first of all; that the 
self-existing something belongs to eternity, and that the 
something, and the only thing, existed in the unorigi- 
nated condition of the universe. But some one might 
say, Why was there a certain something? With just 
as much reason it may be asked. Why should there 
have been anything else than it? But some would say, 
Why were there not many original things ? With equal 
propriety it might be asked, Limited to what number 
of things? Then why not just one? But it may be 
asked. Why a somiething of a certain quality or nature ? 
It may be as pertinently asked. Why not thus as other- 
wise? It may be asked, Why an imoriginated some- 
thing? Then it may be far more interestingly asked, 
How can all existences that now appear be accounted 
for except by its acknowledgment? Questions are 
more curious than wise. Yet they are always legiti- 
mate among honest inquirers after knowledge. The only 
point of interest is that there was an uncreated condi- 
tion that belongs to eternity, and that there is a created 
condition that belongs to time; that in the uncreated 
condition there dwelt, lived, and acted a something that 
is the first cause, and hence the cause of the created 
universe. 

Now let it be hypothecated that matter was the un- 
created condition, and that it of itself generated the 
present condition of the universe and is therefore to be 
named the first cause. This on the first glance is as- 



204 MATTER. MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

suming a very broad ground for matter, for it is known 
to be the only positively dead thing among all that ex- 
ists. The more it is looked upon and experimented 
with, the deeper rises the impression that it is perfectly 
powerless, that it is altogether incapable of self-action, 
that it cannot and did not create the myriad forms that 
it has been made to assume. Its apparent self-action is 
dissipated by the facts attesting everywhere that the 
life, forces, mind, will, and consciousness that appear 
within it are other things than matter. So it would 
seem, even at this stage of the argument, that whoever 
would attribute the first cause to matter is put to the 
necessity of proving that matter possessed a power in 
the uncreated condition that has now become exhaust- 
ed. This would be a very serious and doubtful task, so 
much so that hardly any one will ever dare to attempt 
it. On the basis of such hypothesis the first cause was 
mutable, has perished. It was not even equal to the 
things of its production, all of which is absurd. 

It was observed in another chapter, in which matter 
was the positive subject of investigation, that it is a 
small quantity in the universe. There is scarcely one 
cubic inch of condensed matter for each ten million 
cubic miles of space. Now if one cubic inch of matter 
should be equally diffused throughout a cubic yard, the 
specific gravity of a cubic inch of it would be more than 
thirty-six thousand times less than it is ; a specific 
gravity so inappreciable as to make it appear probable 
that science would be unable to discover the matter in 
the cubic yard. When it is considered that in a cubic 
mile the specific gravity would be a billion times less, 
and in the ten millions of cubic miles it would still be 
ten millions of times less, it is easily seen how scarce 



CAUSE. 205 

matter is in the universe, and that, instead of being the 
thing of greatest quantity, it may be among the least. 
For it is very probable that there are things dififused 
through space, hidden no more than matter would be 
in general diffusion, and in great quantity ; and that if 
brought into subjection, as has been the case with dead 
matter, and concentrated, there would be something to 
behold that would make matter look insignificant in 
the comparison. 

That which has been stated is for the purpose of call- 
ing attention to the truth that matter has been magnified 
and gained an importance in human thought because 
man is in part material, and can see matter only in the 
sense of an obstruction to his vision, and probably only 
a small part of that. But whichever way the subject is 
looked into, if it be granted that matter was the self- 
existing thing in the uncreated condition and the only 
thing, how does it appear that there are greater things 
than matter in the universe ? How has it happened that 
matter, when called the first cause, has been subdued? 
P'or then the old parent of all is dead, and is in utter 
subjection to the power and forces that hold it in sub- 
jection. Such contradictions are possible only when a 
mistake has been made. The mistake is grounded in 
the error of making matter the one existing thing in 
the uncreated condition, or the first cause of all. 

Matter is mutable, which is a quality that does not 
or should not belong to a thing unoriginated. That 
which is from eternity cannot change itself, and it is a 
contradiction to suppose that anything can spring from 
it that can have power to change it or destroy it. Things 
constructed, however overawing and powerful they may 
appear in human sense, are not as great as the cause 



2o6 



MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



that constructs. The cause still holds the things of 
fabrication in hand and can destroy them at will, but 
they cannot destroy the cause. But matter is mutable, 
and, being mutable, either changes itself, which is con- 
trary to the character of a first cause, or else it is 
changed by the action of other forces, which would be 
destructive of the idea that it is the first cause. 

If matter is to be regarded as the unoriginated first 
cause, and is to be regarded as always having been such 
in character as now belongs to it, there are complica- 
tions about it that lead to difficulties, contradictions, 
and even to the destruction of the idea that it can have . 
any claim for being the first cause. It is known that 
forces, not of matter, enter into it, make use of it, and 
mold the different forms, whether they be looked upon 
as globes of planetary size or as drops of falling rain ; 
whether they be the form of a crystal, a shell, a vege- 
table growth, a reptile, or a man. These forces that 
build the forms are mightier and of better character 
than the material used in building the forms. They 
are the mighty and the active, and they lay hold of the 
helpless. They are not all equally powerful, and-there- 
fore may often interfere with each other's labor and 
w^ork. But in all this matter, which is the helpless 
quantity, and with which they all deal, is not at all ac- 
countable. It would appear that these or some of these 
are entitled to be named as the first cause rather than 
matter. It is not known that they are mutable. So far 
as knowledge goes, they are constant. Because one is 
more powerful than another and interferes with the 
processes poing on in matter gives no proof either of 
a force's absence or its mutability. 

If matter is to be called the first cause, it must be 



CAUSE. 207 

proved to have a capability that has never been discov- 
ered in its possession. As stated above, no one has ever 
yet been able to prove that it has power within itself to 
generate the different forms in which it is found. Tak- 
ing a thing for granted is very different from making 
proof of it. Taking a thing for granted is the cheapest 
of all arguments. It is a very abusive method in search- 
ing out the truth. But furthermore, How has matter 
produced all those forces and even life itself and placed 
them on the outside to come in and go out and do with 
their Creator just according to their nature and incli- 
nation? Do they not hold matter bound? But some 
one may say that they held matter in possession in the 
uncreated condition of the universe. All very well. 
Then there must have been several things in that un- 
created condition, and among them matter is the most 
insignificant, and, therefore, as it is in itself helpless, it 
is the least entitled to the name of the first cause. But 
all this indicates the contradictions and difficulties that 
arise when it is assumed that matter was the first cause. 
But if m.atter is held to be the first cause, why does 
it show itself to be so young? It certainly shows youth- 
fulness in its present state of being, gathered into the 
spheres of the material universe. It is natural in look- 
ing for the first cause to bend the thought not simply 
toward the thing we see, but, if it has not a satisfactory 
hoary head, toward something else conceivable that 
gives a better answer to the understanding. Matter is 
an open book, and holds out to man its own tables of 
calculation. As gathered in spheres, taking the earth 
as a basis for inductive reasoning, matter shows a 
modern origin, at least a modern origin so far as its 
present wondrous collected forms are concerned. The 



2o8 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

word ''modern" is here used in contrast with conception 
of a more ancient date for action in the first cause than 
matter can afford. 

It matters little whether the years of globular matter 
are counted by thousands or millions, even to the ex- 
tremest age the most doubting may require, still there is 
modernness in the aspect of matter that cannot be over- 
looked. There is nothing in its forms counted through 
geological structure of its connected strata but periods 
of time, one following another. These connected struc- 
tures of the earth indicate time and count the periods 
as certainly as the pithy circles of the forest trees 
show the years of their growth and their age. In 
either case, there is a count to the last and then a stop, 
only with this difference : one is a year and accurately 
determined, while the other is a period of years with 
quantity undetermined. Paleontology makes a similar 
argument, only it fixes a date from sterile rock through 
all the genealogical ribs of the earth, through fauna, 
and up to man. The period since man appeared is 
known to be only a few thousand years. Instead of 
striking the human sense as the first cause, each period 
simply stands with a signboard on its face pointing an 
index finger toward the cause. 

But It might be held that not matter, but the princi- 
ple or substance of it, was the only thing In the un- 
originated universe, and that It Is the first cause, and 
from It all other being has sprung ; that It was the initial 
power that gave origin to the created world and even to 
matter Itself. Indeed, there Is on a casual glance a 
plausibility about this conception that does not belong 
to matter. There Is nothing harsh In the thought that 
the principle of matter may have existed before matter 



CAUSE. 209 

Itself. This would be holding to the idea that matter is 
not, in either the form or quality of its origination, but 
that there was a first principle of it, and that matter in- 
cidentally appeared through a mutation or evolution of 
its formerly existing principle. Now, it is not neces- 
sary to deny that a principle of matter existed before 
matter itself, or that such mutation or evolution has 
once in time taken place, in order to show that neither 
matter nor the principle of it was the first cause. 

The question is a first cause. If the principle of mat- 
ter changed in order to produce matter, that is an ad- 
mission that matter does not belong to the uncreated 
condition of the universe, and therefore shows itself 
not to be the first cause. If the principle of it passed 
through such evolution, it shows itself a creature of 
change. In this it forfeits both the character and nature 
of a first cause, shows the mutation and fickleness of 
things made, rather than the stability of the something 
unoriginated. Therefore neither matter nor whatever 
may be regarded as the principle of it is entitled to the 
name of the first cause. 

Since it must be conceded that in eternity there was 
an unoriginated condition of the universe, and that 
something existed in that condition that stands as the 
cause of the created universe, and since it appears that 
matter or any conceivable principle of it gives a sat- 
isfactory answer as a first cause, the search for that 
cause must be continued. Of course the search cannot 
be continued among visible things except in their con- 
ceivable and reasonable relation to something that is 
unseen. The question, therefore, now passes over Into 
metaphysical grounds. And in this beginning of search 
in such territory, time is not lost when it is stated that 
14 



2IO MATTER. MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

science of to-day is not altogether Sadducean. For 
men of science are in search of acknowledged but un- 
seen existences. The difference between them and 
another class of scientists, who may be called scien- 
tists of faith, is that the latter acknowledge the evi- 
dence is already sufficient, whereas the former are not 
satisfied with the knowledge of the evidence that pro- 
duces faith in the fact, but would handle the fact itself, 
thereby dwelling in that knowledge that makes faith 
exclusive. Really this is the only ground for any 
skepticism that now exists. That is to say, one 
class of scientists would positively know everything, 
whereas another class yield their assent on reasonable 
and well-founded evidence. 

Scio means 'T know.'' / know means knowledge 
grasped in hand. This is strict science. But even this 
is based on things unseen, but necessarily acknowl- 
edged. So there is a species of scientific ''faith" asso- 
ciated and commingled with science. It is a fact that 
absolute knowledge is quite limited. Credo means. 'T 
believe." For greater emphasis, and to carry the assent 
of the mind into confidence, another word is used. 
Hence Udo means "I have confidence in, I trust." The 
faith scientist would look carefully after evidence and 
have it fully in knowledge and ample. But he prudent- 
ly stops at the fact the evidence supports, with a con- 
sciousness that it cannot be touched, handled, and 
measured. It Is in the invisible, and cannot be caught in 
a material crucible. 

In view of such a situation the question rises. Shall 
the world be run, not by science or faith, but shall it be 
run by knowledge or faith ? The answer is, Neither way 
in particular, but by both in general. Knowledge of evi- 



CAUSE. 211 

dence is very different from a knowledge of facts. In 
both science and religion, things are often treated as 
facts when really they are not knowledge but granted 
truth supported by evidence. In both science and re- 
ligion some such have been proven false. But how 
shall the world run and how shall it drift? Of course 
it will drift just as it runs. But it should run consist- 
ently. If it is assumed that it is to run on mere knowl- 
edge, it will run on a very narrow gauge. There is 
nothing in mere knowledge that so strikes the sense as 
to exclude from man self-pride and arrogancy; noth- 
ing that particularly teaches and impresses the moral 
nature. Knowledge as a quality in man is like wealth 
and is often a conceit, that sets one man above another, 
and has a tendency to encourage vanity. 

But on the other hand, faith supported by evidence is 
not a confined science, at least not so confined as that 
of the materialist who claims, though falsely, to believe 
nothing, but simply to dwell in knowledge. Faith takes 
in the unseen where exists the first cause. It takes in 
so much of the unseen as is of the highest probability, 
not as absolute fact, but as facts supported by evidence, 
and the evidence of support is knowledge. So then 
the man of faith, or the Christian scientist. If he may 
be so called, allows all real discovery of the naturalist 
or materialist, and casts his anchor in the confidence of 
the supernatural wherever there is a strong chain of 
evidence for support. This is not superstition, as has 
been charged through a lack of knowledge or through 
prejudice; but it may be a ground out of which super- 
stition and fanaticism grow even as naturalism is such 
ground itself. 

The foregoing chain of thought has naturally inter- 



212 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

luded as an introduction to the true nature and quality 
of the first cause. ' The ground now appears to be suf- 
ficiently clear. The first cause is God ; that Being, and 
the only Being, that existed in the unoriginated 
condition of the universe ; that condition to which fin- 
itude may reach and where, under the restraint of eter- 
nity, it must end. The mind of man is able to reach 
only to this first cause who existed as the only Being in 
the unoriginated or uncaused universe. At that Being 
and that condition the finite mind of man must stop. 
Intelligent finiteness must find a finitude, a stopping 
place. In the downstream of creation it stops with 
that which is in the upstream with the first cause. These 
are its fitting limitations. Beyond in either direction is 
a breakdown in the mind itself. Within these limits 
reason can do her perfect work. Beyond either way is 
the deep, v/ide sea of eternity, on which no human craft 
can float. 

Here is a cause without a cause, a support upon 
which all that is depends. But why, thinks one, did 
such a cause exist ? That is a question, if a proper one 
at all, that belongs to the realm beyond finitude. The 
secrets of the answer are shut up in the archives of 
eternity. If they were in the archives of time, the door 
might be opened. If the first cause had been matter, or 
any other than God, there would have been the same 
necessity for this same question. The question is not 
asked because the first cause is God, but because there 
is a first cause. 

If an argument should be attempted, it would be just 
as hard to prove that matter as a first cause was un- 
originated as to prove that God was unoriginated. But 
such questions are both unbecoming and unnatural. 



CAUSE. 213 

They are altogether outside and above man's mind. 
He can trace only to the first cause, when all nature 
commands him to stop. He must stay within his pris- 
on house of finitude and be content forever in such limi- 
tation. He can find enough to occupy his time and 
thought, without attempting the Impossible. 

Placing God as the first cause strikes human sense 
in higher admiration than matter or any other conceiv- 
able thing can do. It places more than force, motion, 
and mere life at the head of creation. It places there 
mind and will. This acknowledgment is a useful and 
basic principle, and removes from creation every idea 
of chance work, together with every feature of htstis 
naturce. It signifies a use and purpose in all that is 
made, and that nothing is made and turned loose as a 
bird that knows not where is the harvest, but that the 
bird and the harvest shall go together. 

Much might be said about the beginning of the work 
of this great first cause, but again much might be said 
altogether unprofitable. It brings the thought in such 
contact with a Being of Eternity that there would be no 
choice of dates. Any date that man could fix would 
sustain the same relation to eternity as any other. An- 
cient and modern times, before and time after, are 
human ideas of time measure that belong to creatures 
of time, and are needful to facilitate the human under- 
standing. They belong to the created and not the un- 
created, to man and not God. 

There is one thing that satisfies curiosity, and -even 
the mind itself. That is to say, since the whole of time, 
whatever its length, can sustain no relation to eternity 
as a part, yet the satisfaction comes by giving it great 
length and making it, in conception, look as nearly like 



214 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

eternity as possible. There is to finite minds such a 
vag-ueness about the word ''eternity" that it always pro- 
duces hesitation as if w^aiting for an explanation which 
never comes. It is impossible. Hence the desire to 
have something to consider and the measures in its 
length as nearly like unto eternity as possible. This 
introduces the thought to a probability as to what was 
the beginning of creation by the first cause. Moses, in 
speaking of the physical worlds, mentioned a ''begin- 
ning." He says : "In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth.'' 

It cannot be proved that Moses meant otherwise 
than to m.ention the epoch of matter in universal cre- 
ation. If Moses meant that this was the first creative 
act of God, then matter was the first thing he produced 
and is the most ancient thing that exists in nature. 
Hence time began with the revolving physical spheres. 
If it is assumed that the physical worlds were the first 
things created, it must be allowed that there was an- 
other creation before Adam ; for when he was created 
there were not only angels, but fallen angels, of which 
Satan is chief. 

It is more satisfying to the mind that Moses by the 
"beginning" meant the beginning of the material epoch 
and not the first creative act. While in reason one date 
for the first beginning of creation is as good as another 
when contrasted with eternity, nevertheless there is 
something more satisfying to the human mind for find- 
ing, if possible, a very ancient date. Man, endowed as 
he is with intelligence, has by nature a disposition to 
find out all truth. When he recognizes that a truth is 
hidden, and something unsatisfying is substituted for 
it, he cannot but regard it as a milepost on the way, and 



CAUSE. 215 

passes by it in continued search after the satisfying 
truth itself. Since, to say nothing of the declaration of 
Moses, he can so nearly count the age of the physical 
world, he is not satisfied to consider them as the first 
creative acts of the eternal first cause. It seems too 
modern to satisfy. He is naturally disposed to think 
the truth of the first creative acts lies farther back, as 
nearly as possible like eternity itself. 

The mind is not satisfied with an uncreated condition, 
and in it a cause able to create and nothing being done ; 
it is not satisfied with recognizing a still universe and 
unacting cause, a sleeping God. But at this point, un- 
less proper guards are placed around thought, there 
may arise great confusion. For herein is a tendency to 
make time and eternity one and the same. The truth 
should not be overlooked that time is concerned with 
eternity, but not eternity with time. Time, though not 
a created substance, is the result of created substance. 
With the first it had a birth; with the destruction of 
creation it finds its grave. It is the result of creation, 
and can have existence only as creation stands as a 
fact. It is a thing separate, contained in eternity but 
no part of it. 

There can be date in time, but there can be no dates 
in eternity. There can be a beginning and end of time. 
Every particular thing has its beginning and ending. 
Such may be a conception of the whole universe. But 
there is no beginning and ending of eternity. It mat- 
ters not whether suns blaze or are blotted out, eternity 
remains the same and unaffected. If there can be no 
dates in eternity, time, which has date, is of no conse- 
quence to it. Hence the beginning of time which is con- 
tained in the beginning of creation is a matter of great 



2i6 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT* 

concern within itself, but of the utmost Indiffefetlce aS 
related to eternity. 

Hence that longing desire of the human mind to find 
a very ancient date for a beginning of creation in the 
first cause is nothing more than to find the greatest 
conceivable measure of time. Since there is a concep- 
tion that eternity exists, it is doubtful whether the mind 
can be fully satisfied with any date as the first creative 
motion of the first cause. Its highest satisfaction may 
be attained on the ground of considering that eternity 
is distinctively different in quality and character from 
time; that it has its own exclusiveness, its own being, 
and sustains no relation to time whatever ; and that all 
attempted comparisons of time with it, and all attempts 
to show the relation of the two, are unbecoming and out 
of order. 

But since the mind desires to find the longest concep- 
tion of time possible, it very readily conceives that it 
lies back in the direction of the creative energy. What 
was the first thing made by the first cause may be un- 
known to any inhabitant of the universe now existing, 
and it may have been an act performed in time alto- 
gether incomputable to man. This all lies in the un- 
known and unfathomable past. But since eternity is 
not concerned with dates, and since one date for a be- 
ginning answers as well as another, the physical uni- 
verse may be regarded as the first creative act, provided 
the nature of the first cause is not to be taken into the 
account. 

But when the nature of that cause is revealed, that 
he is spirit, reason suggests, however weak it may be, 
that some kind of spirit creation first appeared ; some- 
thing in essence like the cause himself. It is natural 



CAUSE. 2 1 7 

that like, even in a creative act, should generate like. 
Such creation may have an inconceivable date in time. 
But to have such spiritual masters in a beginning of 
creation would seem to be a contradiction and to reverse 
the ideas that have crept into the brain of the material- 
ist or natural evolutionist. It would indicate that the 
greatest was first. It would furthermore indicate that 
in whatsoever there is a possibility, an ability, and a dis- 
position to improve and advance, it is an effort to 
recover something lost by degeneration, rather than to 
attain a height beyond creative endowment. In this 
idea there should be taken into the account the differ- 
ence that exists between created endowment and edu- 
cation. One is the faculties ; the other the culture. 

Outside of the account of creation given by Moses, 
the Bible suggests that such was the beginning of cre- 
ation, or at least of an existing creation anterior to that 
of which Moses speaks. What is meant by the cheru- 
bim which guarded the entrance to the tree of life? 
Again, what is meant in Job, when, speaking of the 
material creation, he mentions the singing of ''the 
morning stars'' and the shouts of the ''sons of God?^' 
Indeed, what is meant by the hundred allusions to spir- 
it intelligences in the Bible? These certainly must be 
related to some other creation. 

Therefore, in seeking for the first act of the great 
cause, which may be regarded as the beginning of time, 
a mind in seeking satisfaction is at liberty to fix a date 
as incomprehensible as eternity itself, a date in which 
time almost looks like eternity; so that the concep- 
tion of an uncreating intelligent cause and of a sleep- 
ing God is lost in the confusion, not only of incom- 
prehensible eternity, but of incomprehensible time it- 



2l8 



MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 



self. If, therefore, the mind inquires after and seeks 
for rest among the dates of the past, it is impossible to 
find a satisfying definiteness either in eternity or in 
time. There is no revelation from God or through na- 
ture that can satisfy the mind on this point. It is doubt- 
ful, should any such revelation be attempted, whether 
the mind of man has the capacity to grasp it. 

In a survey of the uncreated condition of the uni- 
verse, and in a survey of the nature and character of 
the great first cause that dwells in that condition, rea- 
son has a right to assert itself. There is no other al- 
ternative. It has a right to assert itself through the 
material w^orld, which Is an open book of revelation di- 
recting to that cause, and through any direct existing 
revelation that sets up a claim to be the spoken word 
of that cause. It has a right to assert itself as to 
whether there was a necessity for revelation other than 
that of nature. When reason asserts itself it means an 
honest pursuit after the truth. 

The case stands now assumed that God is the great 
first cause. In this assumption it is not to be enter- 
tained that he is all that different people have claimed. 
It is not herein set forth to go to these human details 
of thought which give rise to a multitude of opinions 
and contradictions. It is only an argument for the all- 
wise and all-powerful God as the first cause of all 
things. It is a claim that the voice of nature speaks of 
him ; and furthermore, since nature can speak of only 
his wisdom and power, it is an argument that renders 
admissible a word that comes from any source that 
would be the true speech of his moral character, his 
love, compassion, justice, and mercy. 

The physical universe has appeared. Nothing indi- 



CAUSE. 219 

cates power more than this. It is oeyond human con- 
ception in its wisdom. The greatness of the work and 
the wisdom displayed are the two most astonishing par- 
allels of human contemplation. It is all outside the 
pale of human reason, except that reason brings man 
to his knees of confession, where he is necessarily com- 
pelled to make an acknowledgment. Overwhelmed in 
the contemplation, shorn of strength to reach into the 
profound mystery, unable to measure the height and 
depth, and struck with awe as the pages of the revolv- 
ing spheres turn the thought to the yet more wondrous 
cause, man is forced to a conscious feeling of humility, 
and can but cry out from the depths of his soul, ''O 
God, thou didst it.'' Man makes his confession on the 
ground that his reason can find no substitute. If man 
asks. Why that great cause who antedates all nature? 
the thought is made to recoil upon the questioner when 
it is asked. Why not that cause and that character as well 
as any other ? All questions may be hedged with others 
equally wise and prudent. It all indicates that this 
cause is the proper stopping place for human thought 
and investigation. 

Strict reason will allow intelligence in the cause, a 
purpose, a power over matter, the creation and estab- 
lishment of forces that act with precision and a will. 
These are necessary to account for the present estab- 
lishment and harmony of the physical universe. With 
them everything seems reasonable. Without allowing 
them, the reason of man begins immediately to stumble 
in any attempt to account for the existence of matter 
and the arrangement in which it is placed, and the pur- 
pose for which it was used. To speak of an unintelli- 
gent force as its own cause is an argument conducted 



^20 MATTER, MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

on lines of perverted reason on the ground that there is 
nowhere shown a hand or cause that either produces, 
plans, or upholds. There is contained in it such vanity 
and such a lack of capacity as that it may be well illus- 
trated in the old mythology where Phaethon was given 
liberty to drive the chariot of the sun for a single day. 
Jupiter, seeing the coming disaster, struck Phaethon 
from the chariot and drowned him in the Po to save the 
world from being set on fire. 

A great mind, with purpose, will, and universal pow- 
er, must be at the head of the present universal arrange- 
ment. It is inconceivable how it could exist in any 
other way. Such wisdom and power is as tangible to 
the thought and as directly and as strictly related to 
existence as gravity is to matter. Gravity is universal, 
has precision of perfect exactitude, but has neither 
purpose, wall, nor intelHgence. Yet its existence is ac- 
knowledged. Why not acknowledge another universal 
existence, the first, the uncreated, the wise and the all- 
powerful, the generator of gravity itself? It is as rea- 
sonable that there should exist mind as force. The 
latter is as unaccountable as the former, unless it be at- 
tributed to the former for existence. The universality 
of the force is as unaccountable as the universality of 
the mind. The human mind, from some cause, seems 
to have worked its way into its own inconsistency. It 
accepts a truth on a certain measure of evidence in one 
thing, while on the other hand it rejects another truth 
when supported by the same measure of evidence. 

The mind sees a certain nature in matter ; it does not 
know that it is any part of matter. It only knows that 
the principle works in matter. It calls that principle 
gravity. In all this there is something known and 



CAUSE. 221 

something unknown. Yet there is faith and confidence 
in all, so much so that debate about it is ended. The 
mind looks again, and in the construction and arrange- 
ment of the universe it sees the hand of divine and in- 
telligent power. The mind runs back through the lines 
written in the action of matter to a cause of that action. 
Seeing the neat perfection of the system, the mind is 
unable to attribute less than mind, purpose, will, and 
powder to the cause. In this structure and arrangement 
there are complications in which gravity plays only a 
part. If gravity plays only a part in the formation and 
management of the whole system, then other principles 
must play the other parts in this complexity of universal 
matter. So then, when each plays its part in harmony 
with the others, the whole machinery of universal mat- 
ter is seen in its work. 

But w^hence this order? Whence this harmony of 
forces when it is their nature, if unharnessed, to destroy 
everything but themselves? Whence the harnessed 
forces themselves? Whence all this order and preci- 
sion that in the midst of the greatest complexity never 
gets into confusion ? As certainly as there never was a 
steam engine unless man made it, and as certainly as 
that whenever a man meets with a steam engine he at- 
tributes its existence to design and purpose, so certainly 
does reason teach that every such complex thing of the 
earth and the more complex universal arrangement are 
the results of an intelligent design, purpose, and power. 

The forces of life, mind, and will among the crea- 
tures of the earth, in their connection with and control 
over certain measures of matter, are but a miniature il- 
lustration of the universal control of matter by the uni- 
versal mind and power. The limited mind of man is as 



223 MATTER^ MAN^ AND SPIRIT. 

accountable and is as hard to find as the universal. The 
difference consists in conceptions of magnitude and 
power. Use man as a meager illustration : His body of 
matter performs many kinds of action. It is universal- 
ly conceded, however much the body appears to be a 
living being within itself, that it originates neither the 
instinct nor the intelligent thought of the motions. 
They are attributed to the life that dwells in the body 
and to the pecuHar endowment which the life possesses. 
It matters not whether man is put under review or a 
serpent, the motions come from the life and endow- 
ments. Motions that are made with design and pur- 
pose come from a life endowed with mind. Even in 
man, however, many animal motions are possible with 
which the mind is no more concerned than that of the 
beasts whose motions are made with selfish ends. In 
man also designs niay be either of a good or of a bad 
nature. 

But the illustration means to show how matter is har- 
nessed and controlled. It is an old and wonderful 
sight to see the bodies of matter creeping, walking 
about, and flying in the air ; now slow, now quick, now 
resting, and now going again. It is acknowledged to 
be inexplicable when affirmed that matter does it of it- 
self. Sometimes bodies are seen moving that have no 
life. But the motion is attributed to the wind, volcanic 
action, gravity, or some other cause. Life is the cause 
of motion in matter. The endowments of that life give 
it the varied motions. Extract mind from the things 
of the earth, and man is life in the condition of other 
animals. There would be no creature that could exer- 
cise design or purpose. Extract life from the things 
of the earth, and there would remain none of the phe- 



CAUSE. 223 

nomena showing things of matter creeping, walking 
about, and flying in the air. It is life that gives motion 
to matter. It is intelligent life that reduces motion into 
a connected, orderly, and beautiful system. The 
thought reaches out from the miniature things of the 
earth into the great, universal system of matter. Un- 
less mind, who is called God, is in it, there seems to be 
no possibility of ever finding an explanation. Grant 
the existence of that intelligence, will, and power^ and 
the mists of long-existing confusion skip away from 
the human mind and it at last finds its long-wanted 
rest. 

II. Argument a posteriori This argument is meant 
to show, through existing things, that in the cause of 
them there was not only power but intelligent design 
and purpose. The argument should be made short, lest 
it appear to be a reversed process of thought, covering 
the ground and reiterating what is contained in the 
cause of a priori reasoning. It is easily perceptible how 
any particular kind of thing may be tAced through a 
structure of secondary causes backward and still back- 
ward until the thought and reason are bewildered and 
lost in infinity, unless a first cause of that particular 
thing is found or admitted to exist. 

For instance, let man be used as the particular thing 
in the argument. It is easy, through a structure of 
secondary causes, to trace the son's existence back to 
his father, and the father's existence back to his grand- 
father, and so on in regressive steps until the mind be- 
comes weary, and stops and waits for an answer 
to the question, When and how did the first of the 
man species appear ? The inquiry is irresistable. Man 
wants to know ; and if he cannot know absolutely, he 



324 MATTER, MAN. AND SPIRIT. 

would have proofs of his origin so weighty and con- 
vincing that his mind, so far as this question is con- 
cerned, would confidently be at rest. The proofs that 
would answer the purpose for man would be equally 
valuable for every particular thing. Hence if a proper 
cause is found for the origin of man, a proper cause is 
also found for the origin of every particular kind of 
thing ; and as every particular kind of thing constitutes 
the whole of things, a cause is found for the univer- 
sality of things. 

Of course at this point the science of this day is met 
fully in the road, especially that kind of science, if it 
be worthy of the name, which declares that man is of 
low origin, for it must here be declared without reser- 
vation that men who are called scientists have made a 
great blunder. The mistake has been made through a 
lack of perceiving the distinctive difference between the 
cause-given endowment and the culture that comes by 
the use of that endowment. Faculties are not made by 
culture, but culture comes because there are existing 
faculties. To produce a faculty is not in the power of 
man. He can no more create one thing than he can an- 
other. He simply plays a part in the multiplication of 
his species, and it is allowed that some of these have 
bodies that connect the mind with materiality and with 
better sense-perception than others, but in this there is 
no creation of a faculty. The endowment is the same 
with the whole species of man. The difference is in the 
grades of sense-perception. Hence the body being the 
medium or lens of sense-perception, the strength of 
faculty or endowment shows itself according to the 
degree of the perception. There is no evidence pro- 
duced which shows that mind, as a principle, is not the 



CAUSE. 



225 



same in all men, that it is not a quality of his spirit life 
and inseparable from it, and that the spirit Ufe is not 
one essence and indivisible and as indestructible as an 
atom of the scientist's conception. 

Putting aside the idea of created endowment and 
turning the mind loose to drift only on the lines of 
culture, it is likely to conjure up many things that are 
not true, because it is doing its reasoning on a false 
basis. It is reasoning on the ground that a faculty is 
created by a course of training or education, whereas, 
in truth, education can only train the faculties to use. If 
the faculties did not exist, there could be no education. 

The error committed by scientists is grounded in a 
mistaken presumption, and in basing their argument 
in such premise it is no wonder that the whole structure 
they build is so objectionable and doubtful. It has nev- 
er been proven that the earliest of the earth's men had 
less natural endowment than they have at this day. The 
influences of environment have always had much to do 
with the manner that the tribes and nations have always 
reflected themselves as shown in history. But environ- 
ment has never added a faculty to the mind, nor has it 
ever produced mind. It is impossible; the ox has al- 
ways been an ox, and man has always been a man. The 
ox has no mind, and therefore neither ascends nor de- 
scends. Man has always had mind, but environment 
with him influences differently from environment with 
the ox. Hence man at one time is seen living in a cave, 
at another time in beautiful cities, then again gone 
back to his cave. Yet in all his history he has had mind 
and unchanging faculties. It is all accounted for on the 
ground of influences that lead to the exercise or non- 
excuse of his faculties. But certain scientists, from 
15 



2 26 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

the days of Cicero and even more remotely, have held 
to the idea that man is of lov^er origin, and now in this 
day of highest culture in man's history they are ardent- 
ly pursuing the task of finding proofs of it ; and what 
is most curious and astounding, is by setting up a claim 
that man has been evolved from the lower herds of 
being, bodily form, mind, faculties, and all. Culture, 
of course, has enlarged the range of thought, but by 
no means tends to confine people within the limits of 
reason any more than formerly. The present times 
indicate that two steeds are pulling the car of pro- 
gressive thought. One is reason and the other imag- 
ination. So that present appearances indicate that cul- 
ture has not delivered man from superstition, but only 
shifted its ground ; so that now, instead of a supersti- 
tion of ignorance, there is superstition of the imagina- 
tion, at least there is in science a believing of many 
things without the proofs. 

The idea of man's low origin is always produced in 
the circles of culture. The great range of thought in 
the circles of culture naturally holds many things in 
contrast. The men of low degree are held in contrast 
with men of high degree, and uncultured tribes with the 
cultured, and the ancients with the moderns. But the 
whole matter, rightly inspected through the channels of 
history, is but a chain of changed conditions among all 
tribes and nations of men through the forces of en- 
vironment; but no environment has ever changed a 
man to a beast or a beast to a man. It is true in many 
instances that tribes have sunk very low and have put 
on many beastly ways, but never beyond the capacity to 
rise again. The cultured people of to~day, however the 
thought is hateful and apparently against reason, must 



CAUSE. 227 

know there exists a possibility that their descendants 
may dedine to the plane of the humblest. Only a few 
centuries counted back shows an ancestry of the most 
intelligent societies of man, but little above the civiliza- 
tion of an African Kaffir. But in such decline they 
would only lose culture. The mind and faculties would 
remain the same. They cannot be destroyed, and it is 
on this ground that man is never without hope. 

Man in his earliest being was not supplied with im- 
provements and culture. Even viewed in the light of 
his divine origin, as given in the Genesis of the Bible, 
he is reported as a naked being without culture and 
without a house. Culture and improvement were left 
to him as a work for his mind and hands. But this 
was not low origin. It was about the only conceivable 
way to give origin to a being endowed with mind and 
body adapted and made subservient to any purpose of 
improvement. In such origin he may at first have 
found for himself a sheltering rock or constructed a 
very unimpressive booth as a place for protection and 
comfort. 

According to this olden history, human life began in 
the lap of industry and civilization. Early in Adam's 
family the ground w^as tilled and cattle were owned 
and herded, a city was built, there were instruments 
of music, and there were artificers who wrought in 
both iron and brass. The stone age, about which so 
much is said in support of man's low origin, came after- 
wards by the deterioration of man. In this way arts and 
civilization, as has often occurred in man's history, 
were neglected and lost. Of course this is all based on 
the authority of the history referred to. So the argu- 
ment of man's origin is not to be based so much on ap- 



228 MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

pearances and conceptions as upon the authority of the 
history that treats of the origin and character of the 
civiHzation which so early accompanied that origin. 
It is easy to perceive how it was possible for man to so 
deteriorate as that he had to climb out of his cave into 
a beautiful city, out of his barbarity into civilization 
and refinement, out of his deep degeneration to the stone 
age, and then again still higher to brass and iron. 

But having been put to the necessity of giving this 
brief notice of the present-day skeptical science that 
stoo'd in the way, the a posteriori argument for the first 
cause will be resumed. Man is the only earthly be- 
ing to carry his thought to God as the cause of all 
things. Man is the only creature on earth so endowed 
that design and purpose can enter into or be a quality. 
If he possesses such qualifications, he has mind. In this 
respect he is differentiated and contradistinguished 
from all other creatures of the earth. Therefore it puts 
him in the closest relation as a produced being to the 
producing cause. He is the only being that thinks and 
who can carry his thought back to the cause, and the 
very ground that he can think back to a first cause and 
can think no farther is no mean evidence of itself that 
there exists a first cause. Only this limitation con- 
fines him, and that is he is able to discover the phys- 
ical attributes of that cause only as revealed through 
matter, leaving the moral nature and character of that 
cause to reason and conjecture, unless specially relieved 
otherwise than through matter or any of its phenomena. 

The eternal mind at the head and cause of the uni- 
verse and all that it contains is the most wonderful 
thought in human contemplation. The next greatest 
thing of contemplation is the human mind itself. The 



CAUSE. 229 

gap between is the difference of minds. The one un- 
originated and eternal, the other produced ; the one all- 
powerful, the other limited power. One is God's, 
the other man's. They are both causes — the one pri- 
mary, the other secondary. They both control matter 
with purpose — the one the universe, the other his body 
in particular and then the other bodies through inter- 
position of means. There is similarity and likeness, 
but a distinctive difference. One is God's, the other is 
man's. But notwithstanding the difference in quality, 
the mind is that which places man in closest relation to 
the first cause. 

It is hard to conceive of mind without also conceiv- 
ing of an entity to contain it. It is hard to conceive of 
the eternal mind without an entity containing it. 
Hence it is said, ''God is spirit" — that is, an entity of 
life. Man's body is not spirit nor life. It is only a form 
occupied by spirit or life. The life or spirit in man's 
material form contains his mind. Spirit, and not or- 
ganized clay, holds the nearest relation to spirit, and 
the minds they contain are in equally close relation. 
The spirit and mind in man appeal, cry out for their 
cause. They are told that it comes of the mutation of 
species and on the line of a ''survival of the fittest." 
But dissatisfied and uncomplaining of bodily forms, 
they ask. Whence this differentiating and unaccounta- 
ble feature, this gulf-crossing endowment, the mind 
and its faculties ? Time is given for an answer. 

But the mind and the mind spirit being the nearest 
like and in closest relation to the first cause, and hold- 
ing a position that the narrowest bridge is between 
them and the first cause, dissatisfied with the empty rea- 
soning in search of a first cause, and feeling within it- 



230 MATTER^ MAN, AND SPIRIT. 

self the promptings of an acknowledgment that there 
exists a great first cause, and weary with the age's that 
have trifled with intelHgence and shifted the thought 
on unsatisfying trails of error, and seeing that all the 
skilled efforts of the past have been unable to offer a 
reasonable substitute as a first cause, the mind and 
mind's spirit of man cry out in the ecstasy of a free and 
unembarrassed acknowledgment : ''O God, thou art the 
cause of all things." 



DEC 14 1908 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 207 188 



